Differences between hard links, soft links, and shortcuts in Windows

Mklink is a command tool for creating symbolic links and hard links in windows. It is a good tool for solving file system problems. You need the administrator privilege to use it.

First, we will introduce the mklink command. You can refer to the following:

The description is also very detailed. Let's look at the example below.

 

The following figure shows how to create a symbolic link in windows. What are the differences between hard links and shortcuts.

Symbolic Link(Symbolic link)

• Run the command mklink link_name target_name.
• The icons and shortcuts after the link is created are similar.
• No space occupied in the system
• Not a single file in the file system
• Parse (!?) at the operating system layer (!?)
• If the source file is deleted, the link is useless.
• Removing source files does not affect symbolic links.
• Removing a linked file does not affect the source file.

Hard Link(Hard link)

• Run Command mklink/h link_name target_name
• The space occupied by the system is the same as the source file, but the referenced objects in the system are the same (not copies)
• Parse (!?) at the operating system layer (!?)
• The icon is different from the icon used to create a shortcut.
• Removing source files does not affect hard links.
• Removing a hard link does not affect the source file.
• If the source file is deleted, its content still exists through hard links.
• Any changes to the hard link file will affect the source file.

Shortcut(Shortcut)

• Right-click the selected source file and choose create from the drop-down menu.
• Shortcuts are completely separated from source files in the system
• Only those who know the shortcutsProgramKnow them
• If the source file is deleted, the link is useless.
• Removing source files does not remove shortcuts
• Removing shortcuts does not affect source files.

 

Original article: http://www.maxi-pedia.com/mklink

 

By the way, we recommend a simple tool to implement this function: link shell extension.