Creating Symbolic Links in Windows

Until recently I assumed that creating Symbolic links in Windows was an impossibility.

That was however before I stumbled across an interesting VerySimple Dev Blog announcement describing the creation process.

To create a symbolic link in Windows Vista, at the command prompt, enter the following command:

mklink /d symlink_filename target_filename

(If you are linking an entire directory you must include the /d switch, otherwise this should be omitted.)

Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the directory in which you have just created the symlink, the file should be visible as if this were it’s permanent location. If you wish to remove or rename the link simply perform this action on the file or folder from this location.

One thing to remember is that you must create any link as administrator. If you do not run the command as Administrator, you may receive the following error:

You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation

To run the command prompt as administrator, right click the command prompt icon and click “Run as administrator”.

You may be further prompted with security messages asking for your permission before performing this action, depending on your current setting of the Windows User Account Control (UAC).