Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Creating an Explorer Overlay for NTFS Junctions/ReparsePoints/SoftLinks

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Creating an Explorer Overlay for NTFS Junctions/ReparsePoints/SoftLinks

Posted 2005-04-20 09:34 AM in Programming.

JunctionIconOverlay_folder Travis beat me to it and in record time. I created a small right-click menu a while back to detect Junctions. I did it mostly because it was 5 minutes work, and I didn't want to take 30 minutes to learn about how to make a File Overlay in Explorer.

I figured I'd get to it one day (yeah, right). Travis, on the other hand, couldn't handle it and took the time. He rocks.

So, Travis gives us, Junction Icon Overlay, today's Cool Util. We should thank Travis by crushing his server with overwhelming amounts of traffic.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:13:40 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Uh yeah - crushing his server means crushing my server though! DOH! ;)

greg

Greg Hughes

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:10:33 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

This is cool, I've always wondered if there was a way to have links like this in XP. I had a couple of questions about your setup you're showing there..in looking at your folder it looks like you have your tools folder linked...does this mean that folder doesn't go into your source control with the rest of that project? Does using links in that way make it harder to maintain a consitent build across all machines in your organization?
Thanks

Chris Ortman

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:31:18 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Tools is shared by everyone, and is in a DIFFERENT source module. It's also under source control, but the link hides that fact.

Scott Hanselman

Thursday, April 21, 2005 2:54:55 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Check out NTFS Link:

http://elsdoerfer.info/ntfslink/

Michael

Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:33:03 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

While I clearly see the goal you've accomplished with junctions here, Scott (and I TOTALLY agree that drive mapping is LAME), there's something about the concept of multiple "folders" and "files" that transparently point to different physical folders and files that just.. I dunno, sends chills down my spine.

I think you've mentioned this before, but I can just see myself "cleaning up unused junk files" and accidentally deleting the hell out of stuff I didn't want to.

Definitely an advanced feature for advanced users with specific needs. But man, it makes me nervous, because so much of the behavior is magic and hidden-- and that's not what I want out of a filesystem.

Jeff Atwood

Friday, April 22, 2005 6:26:32 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Sweetness! This is so funny, I was looking two days ago for exactly this, but I couldn't find anything and then there is Scott you tells us about this. I love it.