Fun fact i spent like 5 hours on that thumbnail

@baribari1000

2 жыл бұрын

oof

@sangitakumari5482

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah it looks 👍👌👍

@_SJ

2 жыл бұрын

😮

@cubeir

2 жыл бұрын

Good job, Looks click-baity, as always.

@dinkarfowkar999

2 жыл бұрын

wtf 5 hours that time it takes me to write 2 fricking chemistry chapters

Re: Hard Links: It doesn't matter which one you delete, as long as there is one version of the hard link in existence, the file will still exist. Hard links are like two entries to the same paragraph in the table of contents of a book. So long as one entry remains, the location of the file will always be known.

@harrybagg7325

2 жыл бұрын

wat ._.

@maciejzettt

2 жыл бұрын

So, if I get it right, hard links are just a regular file system entry referncing to a physical space already referenced by another entry and file system treats them equally. As a consequence, as long as there is at least one reference to a file, corresponding physical address won't be marked as unused, right?

@soumyaranjanmahunt1452

2 жыл бұрын

So if my hard link is in another partition, I can never delete the original file?

@maciejzettt

2 жыл бұрын

@@soumyaranjanmahunt1452 I assume that's why you can't have a hard link to a different volume.

@the-niker

2 жыл бұрын

Wow so you can make some files effectively undeletable by holding multiple references to them? Sweet.

I wonder why this feature isn't more user accessible, requiring you to go to the command prompt to access it. Maybe they thought it might be too confusing for some people? It's far too useful to hide it away though, even if it's a bit confusing.

@EwanMarshall

2 жыл бұрын

There is a shell extension for explorer available to add such features to the right click menu.

@ThisCanBePronounced

2 жыл бұрын

Confusion and lack of clarity brings some "danger." He pointed out how in one type of link, it's not easy to recognize that it is one. I would add related possible situations like: deleting the target forgetting something was linked to it because the target shows no signs that it's being linked to, going too link-happy and creating too many that aren't useful or even recursive ones, and using it to get around issues you should manage in a different way. Shortcuts and drive-mapping should do the trick for most of the time that you just want convenience. I think I mainly only use it for the Dropbox trick, and I've used it before to make iTunes put backups on another drive. Some programs actually can't work through the links, and if you have storage space away from your system drive, you should manage your stuff differently, and drive mapping is another option.

@EwanMarshall

2 жыл бұрын

@@ThisCanBePronounced If handled at the filesystem level, it is transparent to the application unless the application specifically asks for the information to find out it is a symlink link. A shortcut is not, as that is just given to the application as another file. The biggest reason they are not more common and obvious in windows is FAT doesn't support them, only NTFS. If a program can't work through links then it is deliberately working to block it, the question you should ask is why?

@ThisCanBePronounced

2 жыл бұрын

@@EwanMarshall interesting, thanks for the clarification and extra details. L But I don't see how FAT not supporting it means anything. it's been like 20+ years with NTFS around. I don't know how long Linux / Unix / macs have had them though.

@EwanMarshall

2 жыл бұрын

@@ThisCanBePronounced "ln appeared in Issue 2 of the X/Open Portability Guidelines", issue 2 was released in 1987. "Symlinks were introduced in 4.2BSD Unix from U.C. Berkeley", 4.2 was released 1984. And more if someone tries to use them on an external drive or memory stick.

Tip, when deleting a directory symlink, make sure you're using Explorer or another program that doesn't do its own recursive deletion, or it *will* delete the files inside the orginal directory. You can find out by making a test folder full of stuff you don't care about, a directory symlink to it, and delete the symlink with whatever program. Symlinks are pretty nice when dealing with stubborn software. I've used it to put part of my Chrome profile on my NAS when I was playing a browser based game that was continually writing lots of stuff there and putting pointless wear on my SSD. I also used them when Dropbox absolutely refused to let me have my Dropbox folder on a removable drive. I was using a mini laptop with very little space in C: and no way to add a bigger disk, but it had a MicroSD slot so that's obviously where I wanted bulk files put.

Already knowing about symlinks, what this really teached me is again how amazing Notepad++ is lol

@Guru_1092

2 жыл бұрын

It's shocking how it isn't a default at this point tbh.

Great video, I’ve used hard and soft links in Linux before, I never knew they existed in windows! Thank you for the useful information.

@EinChris75

2 жыл бұрын

Basically links are a feature of a file system. NTFS supports them since a while. But user tools are not that easy to use. Hence, no one knew about them.

I love how symbolic links are so simple yet so damn difficult to explain to someone who doesn't know about them 😂

@ClaudioBosgraaf

2 жыл бұрын

Why not try "transparent" link, as for explaining. Since most programs don't see it as a link, but just as any other file.

As soon as i've read "super shortcut" i knew it's gonna be about Symlinks... Such a powerful tool to take stuff away from C drive xD

@xfuglen3147

2 жыл бұрын

Could you symlink the Windows folder?

@RYANTHORNTONCALL

2 жыл бұрын

@@xfuglen3147 I believe it's possible to, though likely it will break since files that load the filesystem are in there to.

@wohao_gaster7434

2 жыл бұрын

@@RYANTHORNTONCALL Ha asks could you please symlink the windows folder for me?

@YayaVT

2 жыл бұрын

I actually use symlink a lot, I want my C drive to be used only for windows itself, so for all those stubborn programs that require to install into C, I just move them elsewhere and symlink it 🤣

@TheDragShot

2 жыл бұрын

@@YayaVT now that's a use case I never thought of. Brilliant!

12:46 Shift + 'Right click' > Copy as Path to get the whole File/Folders Path Wow i have been living in darkness getting full paths, thanks for the Tip man!

This was so useful for moving my music, videos, and pictures to a seperate drive without losing the paths. My playlists are saved!

Time to do this on my friend's computer

@ThioJoe

2 жыл бұрын

C:\ ---> Recycle Bin

@AizenSosukesama

2 жыл бұрын

@@ThioJoe laughs in evil

@CoasterMan13Official

2 жыл бұрын

@@AizenSosukesama 😼

@yann1446

2 жыл бұрын

@@ThioJoethe recycle bin is in the C: drive -> best scenario: free energy, worst scenario: end of the world

Yes, I knew about these symlinks already, and I actually find the hard links are much more useful than symlinks. The symlinks themselves are files that take up one additional cluster to point to another file, whereas the hard links are just a simple entry in an existing pointer to an existing file without adding any additional clusters to the filesystem. It's very useful for categorizing files into multiple folders without having to take up any additional space on the drive by duplicating the files. For example if you have some photographs that you took, and you categorize them into folders for "family photos", "nature photos", etc. If a certain photo fulfills both categories, then you can put the photos in both folders, without having to copy them to both folders and using up twice the space on the drive. You can also list all hardlinks that a particular file possesses by using the "fsutil hardlink list" command on command-line or a Powershell prompt. Also there are Explorer extensions available that will make this simple by doing everything from the File Explorer interface without having to use the command line. One example is a program called "Symlink Creator".

this blew my mind, I could've used this so much at a time when my files got mixed up between drives. Better late than never, thank you!!

Joe always finds a way to make everyone's day happier, he inspired me to create my own youtube channel ❤️💓

@silvio2402

2 жыл бұрын

Joe mama

@doge_the_cat

2 жыл бұрын

who's Joe?

@johnthemannn

2 жыл бұрын

@@doge_the_cat what's grass?

@doge_the_cat

2 жыл бұрын

amogus

The information offered in this video might be the most useful thing I have learnt from you since I first started watching your videos so a big thanks to you ThioJoe!

Fun fact: thio sounds like uncle in portugese, so it sounds like "uncle joe"

@msilva2013

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, it does. I can attest to that. :D

@nitrogenio

2 жыл бұрын

I always thought about it

@alwinvillero9505

2 жыл бұрын

tio joe

@user-wv3zd7px3r

2 жыл бұрын

And in spanish

@stefanoVillaMilano

2 жыл бұрын

I think it's done on pourpose

Junctions are also used in the Windows server deduplication. The junctions store the index entries for/into the container files with the deduplicated files. (They are a specific type of junction, so they won't show the link icon modification on the file.)

@ThioJoe

2 жыл бұрын

Hm interesting

I've used this feature for ages to sync the game settings across characters in Final Fantasy XIV, since the game doesn't let you do that natively.

@VojtaJavora

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, that sounds like a good workaround

Thank You for all of your videos that you did. I am enjoying all of them

Thanks Joe! I thought of a number of uses for this feature just while I was watching the video. Good stuff to know.

This video provides a transition path from information to working knowledge of a useful feature. Well done and much appreciated...

Dude this video is so useful! Thank you for this❤️

Oh wow didn't know of this. You made it really easy to understand how it works. Great job!

A Symlink to a folder will sort alphabetically WITH any other folders in its directory - unlike a shortcut which always appears after all other folders. For me, this is a huge quality of life improvement. Thanks Theo.

This will come in handy when I get my 2nd ssd. I won't have to download my *epic games* games again because they don't have an option to move the game location from 1 place to another unlike steam

@Pro720HyperMaster720

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, but they should add that feature if they really want to compete with Steam (btw GOG let you move the games, you can move the games and let tell the GOG client you want to import a directory and done)

Joe, I would really like to Thank You for inspiring me to create content on KZread! I had a KZread channel before but did nothing, but thanks to your tutorials, I gained some fuel and created videos. People started liking my videos and even said that they are useful and I should keep it up. Now I have reached 318 subscribers and I would like to thank you for helping me reach this point. Great Tutorial and Thumbnail is even better!!!🔥🔥

Great video! Your explanation and example use cases are excellent and well in depth.

Dude thanks to this vid I just figured out how to symlink all my individual video project folders to my main stock media repository folder, so now as I get project specific stock footage, its automatically adding to my stock media repository for future projects. That stacked with switching the download location of chrome is gonna change everything. Thank you so much man!!

Wow TJ!! This video is FIRE!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Interesting content with excellent delivery and energy. Love you TJ, always look forward to your videos!!

Keep it up Thio!

I knew this feature ever since i use Linux/Mac. But ThioJoe can now explain it to all the rest of the people. Actually, i like that you take these technical jargons and explain in a way that regular people can understand.

I love this channel, these kind of videos are incredibly useful!

Familiar with symbolic links from my Unix (yes, pre-Linux) days. But the shift-right-click to bring up the 'copy as path' item - SO USEFUL and I never knew that existed until now! Thank you!!

I've done some similar things with this, but the use cases you gave here are super useful. This would help so much with some wonky situations.

i use Link Shell Extension Software It just saves me from going to command prompt

@rondowar

2 жыл бұрын

Was about to comment the same, it turns symbolic links into something that anyone can use, if they understand the terminology involved; cmd scares of many people, and honestly, it's just a hastle generally

@drdca8263

2 жыл бұрын

@@rondowar command lines don’t bite.

Yow ThioJoe Have a great day.

@baribari1000

2 жыл бұрын

1st!

@iquackattimes

2 жыл бұрын

wait a minute, how is your comment 2 hours early wtf

@sangeloo

2 жыл бұрын

@@iquackattimes early access

@iquackattimes

2 жыл бұрын

ohh

@baribari1000

2 жыл бұрын

@@iquackattimes hes a member

Symbolic link directory is also used for legacy support. Windows XP had "Documents and Settings" to house the user profile and settings for that profile were in the "local" folder found inside your user profile folder. To ensure support that programs written for XP and prior work under Vista and later(which stores these files in "Users" and "Appdata"). Symbolic links were made since Vista. A Documents and settings symbolic link directory was made which links to "Users" as well as a local symbolic link link was made which links to %Appdata%

Worked in Unix and Linux and familiar with links, but learned something new about the Windows file system from your video. Thanks

I crank the playback to 1.5x and speed-feed my brain on these tech-tips. Perfect choice by the way, on using the word, "resolved" at 6:02. It made my ears perk-up. Probably because I spent considerable time today correcting DNS issues. Anyways, great video!

On Unix a Hard Link can be seen as an additional entry in the file system to the same file. After creation of a hard link there is no "primary or secondary" hard link. Both are equal. So you can remove either one. The file is deleted, when all hard links to a file are deleted. (The "first" entry of the file into a directory structure is counted as the first hard link to that file.)

@EwanMarshall

2 жыл бұрын

it is actually the same on NTFS. It is just outside of moving a file, windows users generally aren't exposed to them.

@yasirrakhurrafat1142

2 жыл бұрын

Hii , this might be very late , and dumb but ... I have a question , Soo u cannot make a hard link from one volume to another / remote volume . But is it possible to create a link on a remote volume to a file on the same remote volume , cuz its the same filesystem as the hardlink/the original file ?

@ultradude5410

Жыл бұрын

@@yasirrakhurrafat1142 I don’t see why that wouldn’t work :)

@yasirrakhurrafat1142

Жыл бұрын

@@ultradude5410 that's awesome ! I'm thinking of making a server with os es installation volumes on a remote drive . And use block level deduplication somehow . To use volume as efficiently as possible .

It's been a long time since TJ showed me something I've never heard of before ...

@WolfyRed

2 жыл бұрын

TJ says "open the garage" ! IDK WHY

Nice informative video! Just earlier this week I was talking with a friend about how cool this feature is and how Linux apparently allows you to use symlinks by default rather than shortcuts. Works wonders for getting rid of those stupid Adobe programs and nvidia/spotify cache from your main SSD.

thanks Joe that's was helpful i had use junctions links without knowing any thing about the symbolic links

I remember using Junctions to do a split drive Windows install on Win7. Basically letting windows files be on the SSD while the user and program folders were Junctioned to a Hard Drive.

I've used links on Linux extensively and really loved them. I did not know they were available on Windows. Thanks.

Absolutely loved this video, thank you.

Man, this was explained so well. I got discouraged a moment ago because i wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for, but i noticed the symlink option tonight, and i assumed it was probably some type of link/redirect thing but I didn't know how to actually pull it off...and still don't... yet anyway... I'm still listening to ur video so hopefully I can learn it without the cmd prompt. The only other video i found on this was by a Russian guy and o just couldn't follow it. So here I am. Thanks man.

This is actually useful for OneDrive.

you are the best techtuber on earth thio! keep up the good job :)

Hey! @ThioJoe this is really and amazing tip since I am facing storage issues cause of gradle builts this solved a that most annoying issue for me thank you ❤️

Very informative. Thank you for sharing.

Great work yoou covered everything. Thank you!

Great, this helps a lot! for many if my use cases!

Great video, Joe. A very useful thing to know.

Thank you! This helped me alot when doing a backup for my moms Iphone on Windows.🙏

Nowadays, if you're running AI image generators locally using python, using symlinks is usefull to keep your models in 1 directory and create symlinks to point your generator to these (huge) models. "Regular" symlinks don't work with python, only junctions... So there, I found you a use case! Thank you so much for explaining this. Couldn't have figured it out without you.

Brilliant. Thank you!

TYSM , I was trying to create a main folder of all my common resourcepacks that i use for all my versions in minecraft, creating a normal shortcut wouldn't work, this did. Thank you again.

Very useful video. Thanks!

Absolutely great job ❤

very nice explanation! thanks!

This is super useful. Thanks!

This is how Vortex mod manager handles deploying mods! It stores the actual mod files in one location and whenever you deploy a mod, it puts symlinks in the correct location in the game's folder. This means that it's possible to have multiple profiles or easily turn mods on and off without having to move the files!

That was extremely helpful. Thanks a bunch.

Great video and feature ❤ Thanks a lot ❤

Good one Joe. Instead of having a desktop full of icons, I made a couple of folders and put them in there. This helps me solve some of the quirks associated with doing that.

I only understood about half of this, but I'm still interested and impressed.

Great vid. Thank you very much !

This is such a useful feature! I use it all the time! 👍

13:50 Well a few months later and I found my good use case for it, thanks for all the knowledge you provide in these videos!

I used these all the time on linux/unix-like-oses. I had no idea they existed in windows. Thanks so much

Ohh Man!! Yiu just saved me.. I was thinking how to make just a folder of mines to be available on the onedrove and not the whole of desktop folder.. Thank You sir so much..

Finally, someone explained SymLinks in layman's terms. Thanks for the great explanation! I think I got it now.

Thank you so much!!!🤙🏻

TheoJoe never fails to make something that can feel very complex to understand into something easy and simple to understand

Directory junctions have an interesting property you can exploit when dealing with removable drives that keep changing drive letter (they sometimes still change even after assigning a drive letter in Disk Management). Instead of trying to force a specific drive letter to the removable drive, I mount the external drive in an empty folder of my choosing in Disk Management (it's the other option in the same dialog as "change drive letter"). Mounting this way actually will cause Windows to create a directory junction with the folder's name that links to the external drive's *volume GUID*. A removable drive will still appear as whatever drive letter Windows gives it, but only the exact drive you mounted in Disk Management will ever show up in that directory!

@becs-ps1bb

6 ай бұрын

This is gold. Thank you from the bottom of my heart; finally, I found the answer to my problem. Consider that, while browsing the web, I couldn't find any solution until I stumbled upon your comment. I also found a way to obtain the volume GUID directly from the command line by executing the command 'mountvol X: /L,' where 'X' is the drive letter for which we want to obtain the GUID. By any chance, can you provide information regarding the creation of symlinks on Google Drive? I can't create them; I believe it might be a bug or something similar, but I can't find anything specific on the internet.

I'm an old IT guy, but this is news to me! Thanks for the video! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Useful! Thanks!

Very good, thank you !

I was so upset about having to safe my music twice, once in the music folder and once in the onedrive folder. But now i can just put symlinks in the onedrive. Very cool tutorial, I wonder why they are a hidden feature and not a core feature.

@Miyano_Shiho4869

2 жыл бұрын

Probably because a lot of users will just find it confusing and its use cases aren't so frequent

@angelcaru

2 жыл бұрын

Most (if not all) Linux distros don't have shortcuts and just use symlinks.

@angelcaru

2 жыл бұрын

Most (if not all) Linux distros don't have shortcuts and just use symlinks.

i love the fact he visualizes the portals with blue and orange, goes to show you how much of an impact Portal made great video

I liked this analogy of teleporting and going through a portal. Made it really clear to visualize. Nice! Since I'm a programer, symlinks seem like pointers to me.

I just had my "ah I remember that moment" (13:50), very useful video.

Well I never, I didn't know this. Thanks for the useful information.

Awesome 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Nutritious nourishment in Windows operative knowledge base. Thanks for sharing.

thanks, very simple explanation

Very Useful.

0:18 Yup, very familiar with this. It actually is extremely useful. Use this to install software anywhere, just put the symlink in the forced install directory. (and games should always be installed in a partition separate from the OS install partition)

Great feature, thanks!

Hello. Great Video, I use it to create a Symblink of a Rom Folder from one drive, so I can save space when I'm not playing a specific game.... very useful indeed.

finally someone explains the types - was confused on junctions vs *presumably newer /d symlinks

I found a usage besides of making dumb programs work in other disc than c:. So if you are playing minecraft, and you have a bunch of installations and a lot of special folders for each one, sometimes it's a very boring thing to always, for example, syncing resourcepacks or options. You can make a special folder somewhere, and put there any resourcepacks you need on every installation for example, and make a bunch of symlinks to this folder in all of those versions. Congrats, you have a really easy to sync resource pack folder! You don't even need to go to that main directory ever again, but you can just go to this symlink and add, edit or remove packs you need anytime you want. Same for settings, just create symlinks for options.txt. Same goes for worlds, optifine settings (optionsof.txt), mods, or whatever. Really cool!

he sure knows how to make my happier one of his videos that he made (Drive not showing up) i was trying to find out why i couldn't boot from a flash drive Thanks ThioJoe you helped me unlock a computers password😊😊

I use symlinks to move "movies" folders from game installs over to a slower mechanical HDD, but keep the main game files on the speedy SSD. Saves space, and that game still 'thinks' everything is in the same place. Even works through Steam updates. Specifically, I use JUNCTIONS, or "soft links".

So useful!

I leaned about symlinks when I tried to backup stuff with the cloud. Really cool. They are like mount points in Linux

Its super useful. I used this to sync World of Warcraft folders (profiles and add-ons) between different computers through Dropbox :)

this is best video on whole internet .thanks

A use case similar to the one you mentioned with a cloud synced file/folder... I use this feature to share files/folders with people on cloud services I don't use much. So a coworker only uses Dropbox and is apparently unable to switch... so our shared folder on Dropbox is symlinked to a folder in OneDrive on my end. I have them linked on a secondary PC, too, so I don't have Dropbox running on my main machine at all.