Define the actual folders hidden behind shortcuts

              From Vista onwards, specific folders seem exist for the sake of compatibility, but actually redirect 

to other real folders. This messes up scripts and batch fi les you’ve written yourself.

             These shortcuts, called junction points, exist throughout Windows.For example, programs can 
try to save data to the old ‘Documents and Settings’ folder, but will be seamlessly redirected to the applicable new ‘Users’ folder. The operating system however hides this persistently. Attempts to access the junction points directly (Windows  displays  them  if  you  enable the display of the system fi les via the folder options) are aborted with an error message. And another stumbling block  is  that  real  folder  names  need to  be  used  in  scripts  or  batch  files. Else,  they  hang  during  execution.

             The free tool NTFSLinks-View provides 

help. It lists the active junctions in the system. Download the program from 

www.nirsoft.net/utils/ntfs_links_view.html. The tool ‘nftslinksview.exe’ can immediately be started. The program lists all active junctions in the folder of your user profile.

              In the ‘Target Path’ column, it displays the relevant real folder which the junction controls in the ‘Full Path’ column. Right click an entry and select the context command ‘Open Target Path’ to open this  target  folder  in  Explorer. 

              In order to check other directories, enter the folder in the input fi eld, e.g. ‘C’ and click ‘Go’. Use the key combination [Ctrl]+[A] to select all entries and then ‘Save’  them  to  a  text  fi le using ‘File I Save 

selected items’.

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Add data types to hard drive cleaning

                 Hard drive cleaning helps in tracking trash on the system. Unfortunately, the functionality is restricted to predefined file types.
            You can add more data types for this function to clean out. For this,right click a free place on the desktop and select ‘New | Shortcut’. Enter the following command in the ‘Item location’ input field:
C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe 
/c cleanmgr /sageset:4711 & 
cleanmgr /sagerun:4711
and confirm with ‘Next’. On the second page, define a name for the new link such as ‘Hard drive cleaning selection’. Then click ‘Finish’. If you use this link to run the Disk Cleanup utility in the future, you will see more entries such as ‘Old CHKDSK fi les’, ‘Setup log fi les’, ‘System error memory dump fi les’ and ‘Log fi les
for Windows Upgrades’ for selection.The command behind this link makes Windows call up the hard drive cleaning utility  ‘cleanmgr.exe’  twice,  with  different start options. First with ‘/sageset’ and then with ‘sagerun’. The number after the start options must always be identical

and must be between 1 and 65535.
             The option ‘sageset’ results in Windows opening the ‘Settings for cleaning  the  hard  drive’  dialog  box  in which the drive cleaning settings can be configured. The system then saves this configuration in the registry under the specified number. The option ‘/sagerun’ then executes the configuration saved under the specified number.

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Hide unused libraries in Windows Explorer

              The Libraries function in Windows 7 help in structuring data. But a lot of users still prefer the conventional folder structure.
              In such a case, you can hide the libraries and thus make space for displaying more folders. For this, right click the first library ‘Pictures’ and select the context command ‘Do not display in navigation field’.Repeat  this  step  for all other unused libraries. In order to display individual entries again, click ‘Libraries’ in Explorer. Then right click the desired element and select the context command ‘Display in navigation field’.

              The main entry ‘Libraries’ cannot be deleted so easily. To do this, a detour Additional clocks can be placed in the system tray to help you work better with international clients.3Add the cool Expose feature to Windows XP with this simple free tool.via the registry is necessary. Type ‘regedit’ in the search fi eld of the Start menu, press Enter, and confirm the user account control prompt by clicking ‘Yes’. Now navigate to the key‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace’. Then select the sub-key ‘{O31E48257B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}’ and open ‘File | Export’. Then select a safe storage location, enter a file  name  such  as  ‘Explorerlibraries’ and  click  ‘Save’.  This  is  to  back  up  the entry. Then simply delete the subkey in the Registry Editor and confirm with ‘Yes’. Now close the registry and restart Windows Explorer. A system restart is not required.
             In order to display the libraries again, double click the exported REG file and confirm the requests for user account control and adding values into the registry with ‘Yes’. The libraries will be visible once again the next time you start Explorer.

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