Symbolic Link Windows May 2026

Now go ahead and clean up those duplicate files! 🧩

mklink [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] <Link> <Target> | Flag | Type | Description | |------|------|-------------| | /D | Symbolic Link (Dir) | Creates a directory symlink. | | (none) | Symbolic Link (File) | Creates a file symlink (default). | | /H | Hard Link | File only, same volume. | | /J | Junction | Directory link (older, works across volumes, but less flexible than symlinks). | symbolic link windows

If you’ve ever wished a file could exist in two places at once without duplicating storage space, or needed a folder to appear somewhere else without copying gigabytes of data, you need symbolic links . Now go ahead and clean up those duplicate files

Often considered a "power user" feature (and a staple of Linux/macOS), symbolic links—or "symlinks"—are a hidden gem in Windows. Here’s everything you need to know to create, manage, and remove them. A symbolic link is a special type of file or folder that acts as a transparent shortcut to another file or folder. Unlike a standard Windows shortcut ( .lnk file), a symlink is invisible to applications and the operating system . | | /H | Hard Link | File only, same volume

# File symlink New-Item -Path "C:\link.txt" -ItemType SymbolicLink -Target "D:\real.txt" New-Item -Path "C:\LinkedFolder" -ItemType SymbolicLink -Target "E:\ActualFolder"

Otherwise, you . Method 1: Using mklink (Command Prompt) mklink is the native Windows command-line tool.

To verify: