Editing Symbolic link (section)

===Shortcuts===
[[Computer shortcut|Shortcuts]], which are supported by the graphical file browsers of some operating systems, may resemble symbolic links but differ in a number of important ways. One difference is what type of software is able to follow them:
* Symbolic links are automatically resolved by the file system. Any software program, upon accessing a symbolic link, will see the target instead, whether the program is aware of symbolic links or not.
* Shortcuts are treated like ordinary files by the file system and by software programs that are not aware of them. Only software programs that understand shortcuts (such as the Windows shell and file browsers) treat them as references to other files.

The mechanisms also have different capabilities:
* [[Microsoft Windows]] shortcuts normally refer to a destination by an [[absolute path]] (starting from the [[root directory]]), whereas POSIX symbolic links can refer to destinations via either an absolute or a [[relative path]]. The latter is useful if both the symlink and its target share some common ancestor path which is not known at creation (e.g., in an [[archive file]] that can be unpacked anywhere).
* Microsoft Windows application shortcuts contain additional metadata that can be associated with the destination, whereas POSIX symbolic links are just strings that will be interpreted as absolute or relative pathnames.
* Unlike symbolic links, Windows shortcuts maintain their references to their targets even when the target is moved or renamed. Windows domain clients may subscribe to a [[Windows service]] called Distributed Link Tracking<ref>{{cite web | url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/distributed-link-tracking-on-domain-controller | title=Distributed Link Tracking on domain controllers - Windows Server | date=23 February 2023 }}</ref> to track the changes in files and folders to which they are interested. The service maintains the integrity of shortcuts, even when files and folders are moved across the network.<ref>{{cite web
  |title=Distributed Link Tracking and Object Identifiers
  |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363997%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
  |work=[[Microsoft Developers Network]]
  |publisher=Microsoft Corporation
  |access-date=30 June 2011
  |date=20 March 2011
}}</ref> Additionally, in Windows 9x and later, [[Windows shell]] tries to find the target of a broken shortcut before proposing to delete it.

====Folder shortcuts====
Almost like shortcuts, but transparent to the Windows shell.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776817.aspx|title=Specifying a Namespace Extension's Location|website=msdn.microsoft.com|date=11 January 2008 |access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> They are implemented as ordinary folders (which need to have the ''read only'' and/or ''system'' attribute<ref>{{Cite web|title=You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7|url=https://support.microsoft.com/kb/256614/en-us |access-date=2021-07-08|website=support.microsoft.com}}</ref>) containing a shortcut named ''target.lnk'' which refers to the target and a (hidden) ''desktop.ini'' with (at least) the following contents:
<syntaxhighlight lang="ini">
[.ShellClassInfo]
CLSID2={0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}
</syntaxhighlight>

Folder shortcuts are created and used from the Windows shell in the ''network neighborhood'' for example.