Symbolic links for Windows in win10?

[Tivonor]

Can I use symbolic links for the windows folder so that I don't have to worry about changing the install path on every program that I don't want on my SSD?

Windows 10 (ver 1607)
120G Samsung EVO 840
1T WD black
3T WD blue

 

[James Mason]

Yes. I think so at least, but there won't be any speed benefits from using the SSD though.

 

[Alabalcho]

In Windows, "symbilink links" are called "Junction Points"
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb968829(v=vs.85).aspx
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/205524/how-to-create-and-manipulate-ntfs-junction-points

 

[Tivonor]

Yes. I think so at least, but there won't be any speed benefits from using the SSD though.

a little more info:
a lot of people are saying blah blah environment variables / edit install paths every time / move page file /etc.

i was thinking about doing it the other way around. just plop my windows directory and use a junction / symlink-dir TO the SSD with windows on it and manually change anything i DO want on the SSD during installs.

my problem, and the only reason i am thinking about doing this, is that i have a bunch of non game programs i use regularly. Installing 40+ programs, im prolly gonna install some to the wrong drive on accident, and 120 Gigs goes fast. im not worried about the games. almost all are through steam and are easy enough to move if i want. but only 1-2 will fit after the "necessities" are installed so might just leave them on the WD Black.

 

[James Mason]

I would say 90% of programs will let you choose where to install them. It's only steam games where you have to tell steam in advance that "hey I may want to install a game on another drive than my C: drive, so setup a steam library there."

120gbs will go fast if you put any games on there, but typically programs aren't anywhere near as large as games are, because they don't have things like uncompressed audio files (that's why game file sizes have increased so much in recent years. It's a terrible anti-piracy measure.)