Cool Unix-like Symbolic Links for Windows Vista

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

 here's and example:

C:\>mklink /h c:\windows\system32\bip.py pybip.py
Hardlink created for c:\windows\system32\bip.py <<===>> pybip.py

New hardlink = c:\windows\system32\bip.py

Source file = pybip.py (in this case the file is located in the current working directory)

So what good is this?!

Hardlinks: They are basically having two filenames pointing to the same file.

So you can manipulate, edit, execute, delete,... etc. the same file using 2 different filenames in separate locations.

Symbolic Links or "soft" links:  They are symilar but if you delete a symbolic link it won't delete the source file and if you delete the source it won't delete the link.  Very useful for scripting and admin work.