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I am trying to grant my user the privileges to create symbolic links.

I ran secpol.msc and navigated to Local policies -> User rights assignment -> Create symbolic links.

I have added my user's group to the list of allowed entities in the policy and logged out/in.

I have added my user's name to the list of allowed entities in the policy and logged out/in.


I have tried rebooting the computer without any results. Running mklink <linkname> <file> in my home directory always gives me You do not have sufficient privileges to perform this operation..

I am able to create links if I open a cmd.exe with "Run as administrator".

What could be the reason?

2 Answers 2

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If your account is member of Administrators group then it is normal UAC behavior:

The new token is stripped of all the privileges assigned to the user except those listed in Figure 9 (Bypass traverse checking, Shut down the system, Remove computer from docking station, Increase a process working set, Change the time zone). TechNet Magazine

Create symbolic links is not in that list, so it is stripped out, even if you made it avaliable to normal users accounts.

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  • Wow... Nice tidbit of Win lore! Just FTR: calling it "normal" is a bit of a stretch though. :) That list seems to be pretty haphazard, and how symlink creation isn't automatically granted from being an Administrator is pretty abnormal too. (Let alone the fact that symlinks are not black magic only admins should use, to begin with. Especially as similar types of links (junctions, hard links) can be created freely by any hobbits; not to mention the entire *nix universe for an example.)
    – Sz.
    Aug 12, 2022 at 21:12
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Quoting https://superuser.com/a/205124/311689:

There is a bug with this Security Policy setting and the Administrator group. Maybe it is what you are experiencing as well.

If the user(s) you added are member of the Administrator group, then this setting has no effect. Removing them from the Admin group fixes this issue.

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