NTFS Link - How to identify the target ?

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query.

In Windows, you can use the command line tool "dir" or "where" to identify the target of an NTFS symbolic link.

1. Using the "dir" command: Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell and navigate to the directory where the symlink is located. Then, use the command "dir /l" followed by the name of the symlink, for example:

dir /l C:\path\to\symlink

This will return information about the link, including the type of file (symbolic link), the permissions, and the target path. The target path is usually preceded by the letter "->" and is the actual file or folder the link points to.

2. Using the "where" command: Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell and navigate to the directory where the symlink is located. Then, use the command "where" followed by the name of the symlink, for example:

where C:\path\to\symlink

This command will return only the target path without any additional information.

3. Using the "fsutil" command: Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell and use the command "fsutil reparsepoint query" followed by the name of the symlink, for example:

fsutil reparsepoint query C:\path\to\symlink

This command will return information about the reparse point including the target path preceded by "Substitute Name"

These commands will help you identify the target of an NTFS symbolic link in Windows.

If the reply was helpful, please don’t forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you.

Thank for Your answere!

Sadly, your suggestion does not work with this kind of link.

I learned from
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71697488/follow-hard-links-reparsepoints-to-files-windows-terminal

and wrote a powershell script based on the powershell function from.