How to Rename the “Desktop” Folder?

Question

I have a Swedish version of Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit). In my user folder, that is, in C:\Users\Andreas Rejbrand\, there are folders Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads, etc. However, in the UI, these are displayed as Skrivbord, Dokument, Bilder, Musik, Hämtade filer, etc.

Now, while doing research for a SO question, I managed (programmatically) to rename the Desktop folder to OS (C).lnk. To fix the folder (which always is empty in my case), I removed it, logged out, and logged in again. Then Windows recreated the folder. But, now it is called Skrivbord (and not Desktop, as before), and so some of my bat files need to be changed. Actually, I would prefer the folder to be named Desktop (but, of course, to be displayed as Skrivbord), for a variety of reasons.

How can I accomplish this? I tried to use cmd to rename Skrivbord to Desktop, but then I keep getting error messages from the shell all the time. I also tried to use Explorer to rename it, but then - of course - the displaed name changes, but not the real name (that is, the opposite of what I want). What can I do?

Answer 1

Create a directory junction using mklink, this will reparse every action from Desktop to access Skrivbord.

Open up a command prompt and execute:

mklink /j %HOMEPATH%\Desktop %HOMEPATH%\Skrivbord