How to create junction points in Windows? (2015 Update)

Oliver SK.

8 years ago

Windows 2000 and higher supports symbolic links and junction points. The problem is that you can only manage them, but you can’t create junctions points in Windows without some add-ons.

About Symbolic Links

A symbolic link is a reference to another file or folder on your drive. Symbolic links or short symlinks are originally a linux-only feature, but since 2000 Windows supports them too. The difference between symbolic links and junction points is that a symbolic link can also point to a file or remote SMB network path (which means that you can also create cross-system symlinks, which could come in handy in a network if you don’t want to copy all of the files). Let’s say you want to launch a game or application from another PC, normally, you’d have to copy it to your own PC, but with symlinks you can launch it as long as you are connected to the other PC.

Creating Junction Points

Download Junction v1.05 for Windows

1. Step Copy it somewhere e.g. to \windows\system32\

2. Step You can then create junction points via the command line:

CD: C:\Windows\system32\
junction.exe “c:\new folder” “d:\path\real folder”

3. Step Use this syntax to create your junction points:

junction.exe Destination Source – this is the abstract syntax where the Destination is the new folder and Source the actual folder

Removing Junction Points:

In order to remove any junction points you have already created you need to use the d flag. Simply deleting the junction point may result in data loss of the actual files you were linking too. This is also the case on Linux machines but depends on how you created the link. Hard links

junction.exe -d “c:\new folder”