Use soft links for most cross-drive/folder scenarios. Use hard links only for files on the same drive. Use junctions for older Windows compatibility (Vista/7 era). Avoid .lnk shortcuts for automation.
By default, creating symlinks requires privileges. To allow regular users: windows soft link
| Action | Command | |--------|---------| | Create file symlink | mklink "link" "target" | | Create folder symlink | mklink /D "link" "target" | | Create relative symlink | cd parent; mklink /D "link" "..\target" | | List all symlinks | dir /AL | | Delete file link | del "link" | | Delete folder link | rmdir "link" | | Test if path is symlink (PowerShell) | (Get-Item "path").LinkType -eq "SymbolicLink" | | Find target of symlink (PowerShell) | (Get-Item "link").Target | | Enable non‑admin creation | Developer Mode OR Group Policy | | Allow network symlinks | fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2R:1 | Use soft links for most cross-drive/folder scenarios
: They can point to local files, local directories, or even network paths (UNC). or even network paths (UNC).