Windows 7: Create a directory symbolic link to a network share

Mklink creates a symbolic link to a directory or file. This was a long-awaited feature in Windows and was already available on Unix and Linux systems.

Windows Vista introduced symbolic links, and Windows 7 lets us use them with libraries. Open an elevated command prompt, or you will receive this message:

You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.

Open an elevated command prompt

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type cmd in the search box.
3. Hold Ctrl and Shift, then click cmd in the results.
4. Click Yes at the UAC prompt.

I want to create a directory symbolic link to a network share located on \\IP\Share.

Create the symbolic link

First, connect to the IPC$ share. My share is on a NAS without guest permissions, so the operation will fail without that connection.

1

mklink local_dir \\ip or servername\sharename /d