Create a "virtual folder" in Windows 7

[Keyser]

Hi.

I would like to create a folder like "My Documents", My Music, etc. i.e. a folder that shows in Explorer with a different name of that shown at command prompt. "My Documents" shows as C:\Users\xxxxx\Documents; "My Music" as C:\Users\xxxxx\Music.

When you see the properties for one of these folders, there is a Location tab which indicates the REAL folder name.

I've read about symbolic links and directory junctions, but these are not what I want, since what they do is create some kind of shortcut or alias and you see both the shortcut and the destination. I used MKLINK /D and all it did was create an ordinary shortcut.

I suspect they are virtual folders or something like that, but I have no idea on how to create them.

Anyone knows how it is done?

[jman98]

What you want to do is create a "special folder" in Windows. That is what Microsoft calls it. It's exactly what you want. I'm sorry but I'm a Linux/Unix guy and I don't know how to do this in Windows. I only know that "special folder" is the correct terminology for it.

[El Heggunte]

If I am not mistaken, those special folders have some kind of "Unique ID" assigned to them in the Registry.

But I don't know whether Windows is programmed to identify other special folders besides the pre-built ones.

[Keyser]

From Wikipedia:

"Windows Vista changes the way My Documents and its siblings (My Pictures, My Music and My Videos − see below) are stored on the disk. Regardless of the Windows language, four folders called "Documents", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" are created in the user profile root (%USERPROFILE%). Windows Explorer, however, shows a different display name for each, depending on the chosen language. For instance, an English copy of Windows shows "My Documents", a French copy shows "Mes documents" and a German copy shows "Eigene Dokumente"
...
This customization is achieved using desktop.ini file."

I looked into desktop.ini file inside My Music and found this:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21790
InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12689
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-108
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
IconIndex=-237

So I guess El Heggunte seems to be right. It looks like these "special folders" are built into the shell or whatever.

[Cornucopia]

They are, but you can always create an alias (shortcut) to ANY folder, the usual way. And name it however you like.

There are other methods that don't use "shortcuts" (aka link handle files): Symbolic links are a good way, though you need special access or tools to work with them (and you should fully know what you're doing first, because they can be dangerously powerful).

Scott

[Bjs]

If you know the registry well enough one can create their own symbolic links, both hard or soft ... rule 1, the folder must exist first.

For those not knowing how to manually go about this then do it via this method