Now for those who would mention mklink, here is what I ran into while developing this answer. Try it out! Just be careful to make Hard Links ONLY (No soft links or junctions) and be sure to work with the links and not the real files! Then regular copy and paste it (NOT pick link and drop as) to where ever you want and Voila, shortcuts copied as files!įinally, delete the linked folder and it's like nothing happened. Work in the linked directory as you want deleting files (links) and such. The ones you want are 'Pick Link Source' to 'copy' the directory, then 'Drop As > Hardlink Clone' to paste. to execute the above solution the 'easy' way is to download a plugin and support file (if needed read download notes) here This will add symbolic link options to your right click menu. (If your using Linux, its easy and straight forward via the terminal, and some graphical file managers like GNOME Commander makes it easy through the GUI as well.) Also, the command prompt made it difficult as well.

Then, you can delete the symbolic links you do not want which only deletes the links then you copy the rest of the 'files' (really links) like normal and it will copy the actual files.īut windows is GUI based, and there is no built in GUI solution to make symbolic links. It copies shortcuts that look and act like real files to the user and programs. You need to create a symbolic link of the directory(s) which will do EXACTLY what you want.

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