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up vote 11 down vote favorite
1

I just installed Windows 7 Pro, and I'm getting it configured to my preferences, and I go to set up a symbolic link(since it supports symlinks...)

But I don't seem to have the mklink program in C:\Windows\system32

in administrator mode in Powershell:

PS C:\> mklink
The term 'mklink' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spel
ling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:7
+ mklink <<<<
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (mklink:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
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I can't find that file under %WINDIR% either, but running mklink on my side just works. I guess it's a built in system command. Does it say mklink is not a recognized command or something? – kizzx2 Jan 20 '10 at 18:20
A similar question was asked over at SO. See stackoverflow.com/questions/894430/… for more information and workarounds. – Kez Jan 20 '10 at 18:59
@kez: Hunh...didn't think SO was the best place to ask this. ::shrug:: – Paul Nathan Jan 20 '10 at 20:32

3 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted 
cmd /c mklink [arguments]

can be used to call cmd.exe builtins.

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up vote 5 down vote

PowerShell is not a complete replacement for CMD. Many CMD functions do not work in PS. Switch to CMD to run mklink

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Yeah, I hear you. Pretty frustrating though. – Paul Nathan Jan 20 '10 at 18:56
up vote 2 down vote

The solution is that mklink is a builtin on cmd.exe. Powershell therefore cannot directly access it.

Negative kudos to whoever thought that one up.

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protected by nhinkle♦ Sep 26 '11 at 21:55

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