How to copy content of folder by copying shortcut it refers to?

MilkyWindow · Dec 22, 2025

Is it possible to copy folder on win11 by copying anything it refers to location, like ofcourse shortcut or maybe symlink or anything similar?

Thingie is I have one big folder with downloads and for now I to categorize content more or less I just made shortcuts of folders to copy in another "sorting" folder that has subfolders categories. So I have big collection that I cannot move around cuz most files there are updated periodically. So I simply cant move them to other folders they need to stay where they are. As workaround I made shortcuts to subfolder categories and is it possible to copy-paste folder content by copy-paste shortcut, symlink or whatever similar it points to?

antspants · Dec 22, 2025

Copying & pasting a shortcut will not copy & paste the content it’s linked to.

hader · Dec 22, 2025

Don't know if this is exact what you want.
But for moving App's to an other locations the is a program called "Application Mover" See: Application Mover - Funduc Software (Used this in the past and if works fine)

There is also a second option. Make sure you have made a restore point first!!

Open a CMD-box as admin; Correct the paths if needed (this is an example.)

Robocopy "C:\Program Files (x86)\ProgramName" "D:\Program Files (x86)\ProgramName" /sec /move /e
mklink "C:\Program Files(x86)\ProgramName" "D:\Program Files (x86)\ProgramName" /j

If there is an error during this whole proces; make sure the program you are moving is not running. If it's running then it will lock certain files and refuse to delete them because they are in use. If there is an registry entry that points to the old location, mklink redirects it to the new location.

Helmut · Dec 22, 2025

Shortcuts are just links pointing to where a Folder/File/Program is located. i.e. The reverse of your question.
You have to go to those locations to select the content you want to Move/Copy.
That is the point of Shortcuts, you can make/delete them move them or whatever. What they point to does not change.

I think what you are referring to is Library/Syncing/Sorting App functionality.

MilkyWindow · Dec 22, 2025

hader said:
Don't know if this is exact what you want.
But for moving App's to an other locations the is a program called "Application Mover" See: Application Mover - Funduc Software (Used this in the past and if works fine)

There is also a second option. Make sure you have made a restore point first!!

Open a CMD-box as admin; Correct the paths if needed (this is an example.)

If there is an error during this whole proces; make sure the program you are moving is not running. If it's running then it will lock certain files and refuse to delete them because they are in use. If there is an registry entry that points to the old location, mklink redirects it to the new location.

Robocopy is no for me. I nuked my drive once using this and ill pass on this forever.

I am using teracopy to copy stuff.
But the most pain is theres not much way to sort folders by some labels or anything like that. hence my problem is. Downloads take already like almost 2TB so it just sits on PC hdd waiting to be copied. while some content is ready to copy paste, the rest I need to sort somehow without moving folders themselves around hdd. SO it was my try to use shortcuts.
I just meant if theres a way to copy content from SOMETHING LIKE shortcut (or symlink, hardlink? DUNNO) which in my case I use shortcuts for "sorting" what to copy what not.
I just meant any easy way to copy from sorted locations which here are shortcuts ( it doesnt need to be shortcut per windows understanding, just anything to sort then copy. any method to not lose track of what I copy on long run.

MilkyWindow · Dec 22, 2025

Helmut said:
Shortcuts are just links pointing to where a Folder/File/Program is located. i.e. The reverse of your question.
You have to go to those locations to select the content you want to Move/Copy.
That is the point of Shortcuts, you can make/delete them move them or whatever. What they point to does not change.

I think what you are referring to is Library/Syncing/Sorting App functionality.

No. I am referring to copying entire folder with content using "copy" on shortcut element and then it copies original folder with content not just "shortcut file"

Example here:
I have lets say 5 folders with varying size, and my categories: (copy-later-remove, copy-dont-remove, update-then-copy), so 3 categories for 5 folders in downloads folder:
-111 -copy later remove
-222 -copy later remove
-333 -copy dont remove
-444 -update then copy
-555 -update then copy

For now I want to lets say copy folder 111 and 222, but the list is super long in downloads folder (around 200 or so) and for example folder 111 sits on top and folder 222 sits somewhere in far bottom of list.
Now to not mess it up id like to simply categorize this 111 and 222 folder and move reference to somewhere (in my case shorcuts) so I will go into my sorting folder called "copy-later-remove" and in this folder would sit 2 shortcuts for folder 111 and 222. so to be convenient id just copy those references shortcuts and paste on example usb to copy and original folders 111 and 222 would be copied with content (not just shortcut file referring to them.

It dont have to be shortcut just anyhow to sort the folders with out making mess by categories of choice and then copy from categories linked to folders with original content and not moving around folders in downloads folder.

hader · Dec 22, 2025

Sorry you have a bad experience in the past. But robocopy has been there since decades and it's trustworthy. But with all things read the doc first. It's capable of many things. One wrong command and stuff goes wrong. You have to familiar yourself with this program. (robocopy /?) Google a lot for more examples. This program is very good what it's doing. When using a logfile it's shows where things can go wrong. Use as a test /MIR instead of /move. It will mirror the software onto the new location and let you know if everything went alright. The first run takes also the longest. If you execute that again it comes straight back; it will only mirror files that are changed. The /sec switch make sure that every rights of the files are the same at the destination. In the mirror mode it will only delete files on the destination dir if they are also deleted at the source dir.

You can determine what extra data of a file should be mirrored/copied/moved using the copyflags. (Normal it is DATS but in some cases you want an real copy one on one; Use then DATSOU. Where D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps, X=Skip alt data streams (X ignored if /B or /ZB). S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info)

Just start with an easy command and expand the command to your needs. (You can also exclude some directory's. I made a script that mirror's all data of my OneDrive. It had one flaw. When mirroring a certain dir it generated the same path inside the path till 7 Dir's deep. I excluded that dir. The case was: things inside that dir was live and altered. No need for that timebased snapshot) When the command works fine; replace /mir by /move. Make sure it generates an offline logfile you can inspect if you schedule this task in the taskmanager.

Robocopy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

dacrone · Dec 22, 2025

you could use a powershell script to get the shortcut's target location and copy the content of that... is that what you're referring to?

MilkyWindow · Dec 22, 2025

dacrone said:
you could use a powershell script to get the shortcut's target location and copy the content of that... is that what you're referring to?

yes. ps script would cut it too I think. preferably according to given example with folders and handling teracopy use.

MilkyWindow · Dec 22, 2025

hader said:
Sorry you have a bad experience in the past. But robocopy has been there since decades and it's trustworthy. But with all things read the doc first. It's capable of many things. One wrong command and stuff goes wrong. You have to familiar yourself with this program. (robocopy /?) Google a lot for more examples. This program is very good what it's doing. When using a logfile it's shows where things can go wrong. Use as a test /MIR instead of /move. It will mirror the software onto the new location and let you know if everything went alright. The first run takes also the longest. If you execute that again it comes straight back; it will only mirror files that are changed. The /sec switch make sure that every rights of the files are the same at the destination. In the mirror mode it will only delete files on the destination dir if they are also deleted at the source dir.

You can determine what extra data of a file should be mirrored/copied/moved using the copyflags. (Normal it is DATS but in some cases you want an real copy one on one; Use then DATSOU. Where D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps, X=Skip alt data streams (X ignored if /B or /ZB). S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info)

Just start with an easy command and expand the command to your needs. (You can also exclude some directory's. I made a script that mirror's all data of my OneDrive. It had one flaw. When mirroring a certain dir it generated the same path inside the path till 7 Dir's deep. I excluded that dir. The case was: things inside that dir was live and altered. No need for that timebased snapshot) When the command works fine; replace /mir by /move. Make sure it generates an offline logfile you can inspect if you schedule this task in the taskmanager.

Robocopy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I tried robocopy in the past and well - mistake and boom.
I dont want to sound ungrateful but I wont touch robocopy again no matter what. (dont want past mistake again). Thats why I switched to teracopy, Im not saying its perfect software but for now I havent lost anything using teracopy contrary to robocopy. So basically I want it to be "user friendly". The problem here isnt the copying folders itself - its rather organizing/label problem and copying by categories and not moving around files on downloads folder.
Besides I have not much means to copy-paste whole 2TB of data at once on other external storage so I need sessions in chunks to transfer data on external then on other media. I do it on 256GB usb flash drive and then copy on other media, I have some more flash drives and they help me categorize some content physically so for example movies goes to flash1, work stuff flash2 and so on.

Long post - appreciate. :)

hader · Dec 23, 2025

Just look at this basic script. All it does is to mirror a dir. /PURGE is there in case there is a file missing (at the source dir) since the previous mirror; If it is there at the mirror location delete it also. (Make sure that the source dir is exactly the same as the mirror location. You kan leave it out but then the mirror location is filling with more files than the source dir. Getting bigger and bigger.) Just try it once..... Your choice....

hsehestedt · Dec 23, 2025

hader said:
Sorry you have a bad experience in the past. But robocopy has been there since decades and it's trustworthy.

One of the greatest things about Robocopy is the /L switch. Just tack that on to any command that you are planning to run, and it will do a simulated run of that command showing you what it would do if you actually ran the command. However, with that switch it will not actually move copy or delete anything at all guaranteeing perfect safety.

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