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Symbolic link in windows 10


Ever heard of symbolic links in Linux? Yes, for Linux guys it’s quite common to hear this terminology. But wait, Windows has it also.

Why would you need symbolic links in Windows? It can be used for what purpose?

Onedrive for business or even a free onedrive application, does not support adding custom folders instead you need to save your files to be synced on the onedrive folders provided by the onedrive application of course. It’s on the path c:\users\onedrive\'Desktop', c:\users\onedrive\'Documents', etc.

So, if you need custom folders to be synced to cloud using onedrive, Mklink command in windows which is used to create symbolic links can help on this scenario by creating a directory junction on the onedrive user folder.

That’s one purpose that I can think of that Mklink command, is quite useful.

At command prompt typing, mklink /? will display how the command can be used. (see image below)




What does the help means in laymen definition?

Let’s try to define it in a much simpler definition.

Mklink  ‘parameter’  ‘link’  ‘target’     

Or in laymen terms: Mklink /j link_path_to_a_new_folder  target_path_or_original_folder
/J – is the parameter to create a directory junction


Link or the link path to a folder is a path to a folder which does not exist, or no duplicate folder name. Ex: c:\My_Unique_Junction_Folder_in_a_existing_path


Target or the target path which is the source or the original folder. 
Ex: c:\my_existing_cloud_backup_folder


The target path should be an existing folder while the link should be new or not existing.

So, to redefine the mklink parameters in simple terms it will be:

Mklink /j new_folder_in_a_existing_path    the_existing_source_folder_path


What it does, it will create a directory junction of the existing source folder;  on another existing path also but with a new folder that is link or a junction of the source folder.


If I will need to sync let’s say a project folder; so, it’s always available on onedrive but since it’s a custom folder and onedrive does not allow you to add a custom path. You can do it like this.

New folder is: wip_project_2018 
C:\users\onedrive\documents\wip_project_2018

 Source folder:
C:\project_2016_to_present

 Parameter: /j


Command will be: 
mklink /j   “C:\users\onedrive\documents\wip_project_2018”  “C:\project_2016_to_present” 

Include double quotes for path with spaces.

 You can read above command as I would like to create a directory junction in C:\users\onedrive\documents\wip_project_2018   and the source folder is c:\project_2016_to_present.

The new folder is  wip_project_2018 that will be added  to C:\users\onedrive\documents\ which is an existing path.
That’s it mklink command in Windows is an awesome tool.


Till next time. Cheers! 




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