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Link Shell Extension (LSE) provides for the creation of Hardlinks , Junctions , Volume Mountpoints , and Vista's Symbolic Links, (herein referred to collectively as Links) and a Folder Cloning process that utilises Hardlinks or Symbolic Links. LSE, as its name implies is implemented as a Shell extension and is accessed from Windows Explorer, or similar file/folder managers. The extension allows the user to select one or many files or folders, then using the mouse, complete the creation of the required Links - Hardlinks, Junctions or Symbolic Links or in the case of folders to create Clones consisting of Hard or Symbolic Links. LSE is supported on all Windows versions that support NTFS version 5.0 or later, including Windows XP64, Vista and Windows7. Hardlinks, Junctions and Symbolic Links are NOT supported on FAT file systems, and nor is the Cloning and Smart Copy process supported on FAT file systems.
Within this document the terms action button and action (pop up) menu are used to refer what are often referred to as the right mouse button and the pop up menu that is displayed when that mouse button is pressed (often referred to as the context menu). Recognising that people swap the usage of their mouse buttons, Microsoft refer to the primary and secondary mouse buttons. We prefer to refer the mouse buttons as the Select button and the Action button; and rather than terms such as Context Menu, Shell Menu, Right Mouse Menu we use the term Action menu.LSE is installed by
executing the install program
(HardLinkShellExt_$(platform).exe).
Follow the instructions issued by the program, there are no mandatory
inputs required during installation, it is possible to
change the location into which LSE is installed, the
default is
C:\Program Files\LinkShellExtension
Currently English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish are available as valid parameters for the /Language switch.
Pick Link Source causes the selected files to be "stored" as the source for the Hardlinks that you want to create.
To create the Hardlinks a destination folder must be chosen, by clicking the mouse action button on the destination folder a menu will pop up, which will include the entry - Drop HardLink
Choosing Drop HardLink will create the Hardlinks in the selected destination folder.
In Windows 2000 and XP Hardlinks can also be dropped via an Action button click in the "white space" of Windows Explorer's right pane and choosing Drop HardLink from the popup menu. It should be noted this feature is only guaranteed to work in Windows Explorer; many Explorer replacements implement an application specific white space action menu that is not readily accessible from general purpose shell extensions such as LSE.
Since LSE supports Junction, Clones and with Vista & Windows7 Symbolic Links, when one or more folders are selected as the Source Links they can be dropped in several forms.
To avoid crowding the popup menu, a submenu is provided that contains the different types of Links applicable to folders.
Creating Hardlinks via drag and drop is supported, after selecting one or more files you can drag them to the destination folder with the Action button held down; when it is released choose HardLink Here from the action menu to create the Hardlinks of the selected files in the destination folder.
With Windows7 this name generation has changed, and LSE behaves under Windows7 accordingly: '$filename - Hardlink.$ext'
LSE uses
the same hydraulics as explorer when it comes to multiple
'Hardlink of $filename': It uses numbers to enumerate the
multiple hardlinks of one file in the same directory, e.g.
Hardlink (2) of $filename
The Auto Rename mechanism is also used when Junctions, Hardlink Clones,
Symbolic Links, Mountpoints or Smart Copies are created in the same directory.
With Windows 7 this behaviour has changed and the names are generated
like $filename - Hardlink (2).$ext.
Junctions are a feature of NTFS version 5.0, they provide for the creation of linkages among directories, Junction were not supported in NTFS Version 4.0
Junctions are created in the same way as Hardlinks, except that the Source Link is a folder rather than a file. Select a folder, click the right mouse button, choose Pick Link Source from the action menu, navigate to the destination folder, click the action button, open the submenu Drop As ... and select Junction:
Junctions are marked with a small piece of chain below the folder icon.
Junctions can also be created via Drag and Drop when the selected folders are dragged with the action button pressed to a destination folder; when the right mouse button is released, select the Drop Here ... submenu and then Junction.
Junctions can be
deleted by using the Delete commands from Explorer as
usual, if Link Shell Extension is installed, because
Link Shell Extension implements a so called CopyHook handler, which
intercepts Explorers Delete commands, and thus fixes
Explorers problems with junctions.
Link Shell Extension changes Delete commands from Explorer
on Junctions to unlinking Junctions, and not deleting
the content within a junction, which seems most logical.
Vista & Windows7: With Windows Vista & Windows7 explorer is natively aware of Junctions,
and no interception or CopyHook handler is necessary, Explorer
simply works out of the box with junctions.
To show the origin of a junction, the reference column of a junction shows the path to which the selected junction links.
Junctions are a
powerful feature, but can also be a dangerous feature without
Link ShellExtension precautions under Windows Version < Windows Vista.
Nativly Explorer shipped with < Vista becomes unstable if you use normal delete or
rename functions on junction folders. Windows Explorer will
always terminate abruptly and depending on system settings,
Windows XP may do likewise.
To help distinguish junction folders from normal folders, an overlay icon is implemented
on junctions that shows a small two link chain under the folder icon.
Junctions can span network drives as long as the target is a mapped network drive.
Unfortunately Junctions, which have a UNC Path as target, can be created
with LSE, but even Vista seems to contain a bug, which prevents it from
dereferencing a UNC Path in a junction, even if LSE correctly sets up
the reparse info for UNC junctions. When a UNC target junction is
double clicked in explorer the error ERROR_INVALID_REPARSE_DATA(4392), will
show up and tell you that the info in the reparse point is illegal, even if
it is not.
@Microsoft: Why didn't you enable this feature for junctions, even if the syntax
for UNC junctions is defined: \??\UNC\server\share. Any help appreciated.
With Vista and Windows7 some folders, e.g. c:\Program Files needs elevation for junctions
beeing created in. This is why the famous UAC dialog must be acknowledged.
To be exact: Only the creation of directories needs elevation in such situations, but creating
an empty directory is a vital part of creating a junction. The DeviceIoControl(), which
does the real work in creating junctions would work without elevation.
To use this feature simply select an existing directory as Link Source and drop it over an already existing junction. By selecting the 'Drop as ... Replacment Junction' from the action menu, the target of an already existing junction is replaced by the new picked target.
The same can be achieved via Drag an Drop.
HardLink Clones are created in the same way as Junctions, select a folder, click the Action button, choose Pick Link Source from the action menu...
...navigate to the destination folder, press the action button, open the Drop As ... submenu and select HardLink Clone:
HardLink Clones can also be created via Drag and Drop, select a folder and drag with the action button depressed to a destination folder. When the action button is released open the Drop Here... submenu and select HardLink Clone:
HardLink Clones are useful if you need to replicate a folder tree at a different location. The disk space required is minimal because the new structure consists entirely of NTFS directory entries with no actual data storage and hardlinks.
If both files and folders are selected as Source Links and dropped as a HardLink Clone then the selected files are dropped as Hardlinks alongside the HardLink Clones.
Because Clones use Hardlinks they are only available within an NTFS volume. You cannot use Cloning to replicate the folder structure on one disk volume to a different volume using Hardlink Clones, because Hardlinks are limited to operation on a single volume.
The Hardlink Clone functionality is also available via command line from ln.exe via the --recursive command line switch.
With hardlinks it behaves as follows:
By closely looking at the above picture some can find three different types of files:
| Normal Files |
The file B is a normal file. It gets copied as
any other copy tool would do.
|
| Saturated Hardlinks |
The files E and F are hardlinked together.
In LSE naming universe they are called Saturated Hardlinks, because the reference
count, which is here 2, matches the number of occurrences below 'Folder 1', which is here 2.
In General: A hardlink is called Saturated with respect to a folder F, if the number of occurrences below the folder F matches the reference count. Saturated Hardlinks can be copied completely via Smart Copy.
|
| Unsaturated Hardlinks |
The File A, C, D are hardlinked together.
In LSE naming universe they are called Unsaturated Hardlinks, because the reference
count, which is here 3, does not match the number of occurrences below 'Folder 1', which is here 2.
Only C and D are below Folder one.
In General: A hardlink is called Unsaturated with respect to a folder F, if the number of occurrences below the folder F is smaller than the reference count. Unsaturated Hardlinks can only be partially copied by Smart Copy. In the above example C and D are hardlinked together in the destination location, but the hardlink to A is broken. This means that the reference count of C and D is 2 with the destination location.
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With junctions or symbolic link directories it behaves as follows:
By closely looking at the above picture some can find three different types of folders/junctions:
| Normal Folders |
The folder 'Folder 3' is a normal folder.
It gets copied with its content as any other copy tool would do.
|
|
Inner Junctions Symlinks |
The folder 'Inner Junction/Symlink' is targeted at 'Inner Junction/Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of folder is called Inner Junction/Symlink, because its target
points to a folder, which is below the common anchor 'Folder 1'. Inner Junctions/Symlink are restored properly via Smart Copy in the destination location.
|
|
Outer Junctions Symlinks |
The folder 'Outer Junction/Symlink' is targeted at the folder 'Outer Junction/Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of folder is called Outer Junction/Symlink, because its target
points to a folder, which is in paralell and thus outside the anchor 'Folder 1'.
Outer Junctions/Symlink are broken by Smart Copy and thus the content does not get copied.
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Windows 7 and Windows Vista support Symbolic Links, which behave as follows during Smart Copy:
By closely looking at the above picture some can find three different types of files/symbolic links:
| Normal Files |
The file A is a normal file. It gets copied as
any other copy tool would do.
|
|
Inner Symbolic Links |
The symbolic link 'Inner Symlink' is targeted at 'Inner Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of symbolic link is called Inner Symlink, because its target
points to a file, which is below the common anchor 'Folder 1'. Inner Symlink are restored properly via Smart Copy at the destination location.
|
|
Outer Symbolic Links |
The symlink 'Outer Symlink' is targeted at the folder 'Outer Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of symbolic link is called Outer Symlink, because its target
points to a file, which is in paralell and thus outside the anchor 'Folder 1'.
Outer Symlink are broken by Smart Copy and thus these symbolic links do not get restored.
|
Smart Copies are created in the same way as Junctions, select a folder, click the Action button, choose Pick Link Source from the action menu...
...navigate to the destination folder, press the action button, open the Drop As ... submenu and select Smart Copy:
Smart Copy is a must if e.g.. the whole content of a hard disk, which has lots of hardlinks/junctions/symbolic links, should be copied to another hard disk. During the Smart Copy operation empty folders get copied too and the date/time stamps of folders/junctions/symbolic links are also restored at the corresponding destination locations.
Because Smart Copy creates inner hardlinks/junctions/symbolic links, this feature is only available on NTFS volumes.
If Smart Copy takes longer than 250msec a progressbar shows the status of the smart copy operation.
Smart Copy also processes all available alternative NTFS streams of a file.
Currently ACLs are not copied with Smart Copy, but it is on LSE's todo list.
When restoring Symbolic links under Windows7 and Windows Vista, LSE forks its
helper symlink.exe to forwards this operation to it, because the creation of
symbolic links needs elevation, and thus brings up the
famous UAC dialog.
LSE only issues its helper symlink.exe if a symlink is among/below the selected
folders, so it saves you from one UAC prompt if you don't have symlinks among your selection.
The current version of Smart Copy perfectly deals with inner junctions/symbolic links, but a future version will perhaps be able to also handle outer junctions/symbolic links.
The Smart Copy functionality is also available via command line from ln.exe via the --copy command line switch.
With junctions or symbolic link directories it behaves as follows:
By closely looking at the above picture some can find three different types of folders/junctions:
| Normal Folders |
The folder 'Folder 3' is a normal folder.
It gets moved with its content straight forward.
|
|
Inner Junctions Symlinks |
The folder 'Inner Junction/Symlink' is targeted at 'Inner Junction/Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of folder is called Inner Junction/Symlink, because its target
points to a folder, which is below the common anchor 'Folder 1'. Inner Junctions/Symlink are updated properly via Smart Move in the destination location.
|
|
Outer Junctions Symlinks |
The folder 'Outer Junction/Symlink' is targeted at the folder 'Outer Junction/Symlink Target'.
In LSE naming universe this kind of folder is called Outer Junction/Symlink, because its target
points to a folder, which is in paralell and thus outside the anchor 'Folder 1'.
Outer Junctions/Symlinks are not touched by Smart Move and thus stay connected to their respective target. Please note that this is different to Smart Copy, which intentionally breaks Outer Junctions/Symlinks.
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The Smart Move functionality is integrated into Explorer seamlessly, so that you don't have to do anything special. Simply drag a folder in explorer to its destination location, or e.g. press F2 in Explorer to rename a directory and LSE will intercept this operation under the hood, takes care of junctions or symbolic links, and will update them.
Intercepting move and rename operation means, that LSE takes over control before rename/move, and recursivley searches the selected folder for junctions or symbolic links. But searching large amounts of files and folders takes time, so LSE will show a progress bar when searching takes longer than 250msec.
The Smart Move functionality is also available via command line from ln.exe via the --move command line switch.
Smart Move can be switched off by setting bit 2 of the DWORD value
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LinkShellExtension\gFlags
e.g the value could be 0b00000100 == 4. Please make sure that after you apply changes to gFlags explorer.exe is restarted either by killing it and restarting explorer or the hard way logging off and on
Point Support
Volume Mountpoints are a feature of NTFS version 5.0, which provides functionality to map complete local volumes onto arbitrary disk locations. Volume Mountpoints were not supported in NTFS Version 4.0
Volume Mountpoints are created in the same way as Hardlinks, except that the Source Link is a volume rather than a file. Select a local volume, click the right mouse button, choose Pick Link Source from the action menu, navigate to the destination folder, click the action button, open the submenu Drop As ... and select Volume Mountpoint:
Volume Mountpoints can also be created via Drag and Drop when the selected local volume is dragged with the action button pressed to a destination folder; when the right mouse button is released, select the Drop Here ... submenu and then Volume Mountpoint.
Mount Points can be deleted by using the Unmount Volume command from Explorer as usual.
To show the origin of
a Volume Mountpoint, the reference column of a Volume MountPoint shows the
volume which is mounted onto the selected path.
Make sure that only local volumes can be mounted but not mapped network drives.
Vista & Windows7: With Vista & Windows7 the creation and deletion of Volume Mountpoints is bound to
successful elevation, which means that the famous UAC dialog
must be acknowledged.
To show the reference counts, a column can be enabled in Explorers right pane by action clicking the Titles row of the details view.
After enabling the reference column the reference count is shown for each file. This feature is only available in Windows 2000 and XP, it is not supported in Windows NT4.
Vista & Windows7: In the current release of Link Shell Extension the column, which shows the reference count and the origin of the junction is not available, because the way Vista and Windows 7 handles user defined columns has been completely revamped by Microsoft and all applications working with so called ColumnHandlers have to be partially rewritten.
This additional tab only shows in the file or directory properties, if the file or directory is a hardlink, junction, volume mountpoint or symbolic link, otherwise this tab is not available.
and Windows 7
Creating a Symbolic Link is essentially the same as the other Link creation processes. Action click on the selected file(s) and select Pick Link Source(s) from the action menu.
Under Vista/W7 when the destination folder is action clicked the menu contains a Drop As ... submenu, to create a Symbolic Link select SymbolicLink from the submenu. Unlike Hardlinks Symbolic Links can span storage volumes.
Symbolic Links can also be selected when creating clones of existing tree structures.
If both files and folders are selected as the Source Links and dropped as a Symbolic Link Clone then the selected files are dropped as Symbolic Links alongside newly created Symbolic Link Clone folders.
Symbolic Links can also be
created between directories, that's why the above screenshot
shows an action menu, which gives the choice to drop a picked
directory as Symbolic Link.
@Microsoft: Symbolic links without elevation: Lets see if this paragraph
is read by someone. I don't know if it is a bug or a feature, but some
can create symbolic links without elevation, if you create a hardlink
from a symbolic link. That sounds weird, but it works. And by a closer
look at this stuff, it can be seen, that LSE really uses CreateHardlink()
and a symbolic link is created. MS guys! Your opinion?
@Microsoft: Symbolic can span network drives as long as the target is a
drive letter mapped drive, but it fails for UNC names in symbolic link target with
error ERROR_LOGON_FAILURE(1326), even if the network is connected properly.
With Vista and Windows 7 it is possible to enumerate
all hardlink siblings to a file in constant time. Simply select a hardlinked file and select
Properties from the right click action menu:
Under XP reading and processing the unique file ID of all filenames on a disk
is necessary to gather the same information. Since this operation is timeconsuming,
the siblings of a hardlinked file are not shown immediately after opening
the properties tab, but the 'Enumerate Siblings' button must be pressed.
Enumeration of all siblings under XP can take time, because in the worst case all
files contained on a logical volume must be at least opened for the filename.
The Hardlink Enumeration functionality is also available via
command line from
ln.exe
via the --enum or the --list command line switch.
Unfortunately this feature is currently only available with Vista
since the Win32 API calls to enumerate hardlinks are not available with XP or W2K.
One of the major Vista changes
was the so called
User Account Control (UAC). Due to UAC some API calls need
elevation to administrative level, and this elevation must be
acknowledged via the below shown dialog box.
Unfortunately, and I still can't believe this, the API call
CreateSymbolicLink is a call, which needs elevation, and thus
causes this annoying dialog box come up every time a
symbolic link is created.
So if you see the below box, and the program asking for elevation
is symlink.exe, it is Link Shell Extensions contribution to UAC
and you must acknowledge it to get Symbolic Links created.
UAC will be the reason, that many applications simply either
will not work, or are not useable with Windows Vista. They are
not useable, because privileged API calls and non privileged
API calls are mixed in the code, and first need to be separated
by architectural means into an separate .exe, which gets
elevated, and an .exe for the rest of the coding.
Many applications will simply fail, because calls like
CreateProcess(), which are very common, do not work, if the
process started with it needs elevation. Well the story
goes on and on, and Link Shell Extension is a very small
application, but to walk the learning curve was a hard
way, especially because the documentation was rather
difficult to get.
I guess the main protection of UAC is that many small legacy
apps are impossible to rewrite for Vista, and they simply
can not be used with Vista efficiently.
- 1033 for English
- 1049 for Chinese
- 1036 for French
- 1031 for German
- 1040 for Italian
- 1041 for Japanese
- 1045 for Polish
- 1046 for Portuguese Brazilian
- 2052 for Russian
- 3082 for Spanish
The language, which is chosen at installation time, applies to the user doing the installation, and is the default setting for all other users. For any other user, who freshly logs on, LSE copies over the language and overlay icon settings from HKLM\Software\LinkShellExtension to the users settings.
Both are String Values(REG_SZ). If the filename specified in the above location is wrong, the default and built in icons are used.
Vista Icons: Vista is a little bit special, because overlay icons for 256x256 must not be in the lower left corner of the icon, and must not be already smaller to perfectly 'overlay' an icon. 256x256 overlay icons must fill up the complete available icon, and also must not be resized. Vista does that for you for 256x256 icons.
Or in other words Vista takes any 256x256 icon and resizes it to 92x92, moves it to the left lower corner and overlays.
For all other resolutions smaller than 256x256, Vista works in the same way as XP, you have to prepare an overlay icon in the lower left corner.
Furthermore Vista icons should not be saved 'compressed', because XP can not read compressed icons.
For my investigations the icon editor of choice capable of dealing with Vita icons was RealWorld Icon Editor
Make sure that pointers for icons are stored under HKCU in the registry, and the value of these keys is specific to each user. Once a user is logged on freshly, the default values for that user are copied over from HKLM\Software\LinkShellExtension automatically.
Furthermore be aware, that changing the registry locations for overlay icons above will only
take effect after restarting the explorer.
This feature is used by Link Shell Extension, to enable the creation of
so called Remote Hardlinks, Remote Junctions, or Remote Symbolic Links. e.g.
A Hardlink has been created, which can be easily verified
Furthermore SMB also reports the reference count for Hardlinks and the junction origin for Junctions, which enables Link Shell Extension to show the properties dialog for remote files. Currently the reference count of a hardlink is reported via SMB in 90% correctly, so please be aware of this restriction.
@Microsoft: Why does this happen in 90%? I have scanned my code in the meantime many times, and it is obvious, that the same call sometimes succeeds and sometimes not. Why??? If you wanna hunt down a bug in your code, please contact me!
LSE supports both, mapped network drives and UNC paths.
Mapped but not available network drives can in general be the reason for sloppy explorer startup performance. Delays of a few seconds can be experienced if explorer has to check all drive mappings, especially the ones not available. This gets worse, if LSE also checks the status of all drives.
To workaround this caveat, the Remote Capabilities of LSE can be turned off in general by setting bit 0 of the DWORD value
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LinkShellExtension\gFlags
e.g the value could be 0b00000001 == 1. Please make sure that after you apply changes to gFlags explorer.exe is restarted either by killing it and restarting explorer.exe or the hard way logging off and on.
With removable media formatted to NTFS there is the slight chance that LSE reports 'Access denied' problems, when creating hardlinks or junctions. This is due to file object permissions on the removable NTFS drive, which have been created with a different computer on that removable media, thus causing this 'Access denied' messages. The solution here is to change the permission on that removable media as Administrator.
On the other hand NTFS supports pathnames with up to 32767 characters, so some might have already experienced pathnames, which are longer than 256 characters. To deal with that, LSE can handle Very Long Path up to 32767 characters with the Hardlink Clone and the Smart Copy operation.
So what are Hardlinks? It is common to think of a file as being an association between a file name and a data object. Using Windows Explorer, the file system can be readily browsed, showing a 1:1 relationship between the file name and the data object, but this 1:1 relationship does not hold for all file systems.
Some file systems, including UFS, XFS, and NTFS have a N:1 relationship between file name and the data object, hence there can be more than one directory entry for a file.
So, how does one create multiple entries for the same data object? In Unix there is a command line utility ln, which is used to create link entries for existing files, hence there are many file names, or so called Hardlinks, for the one data object.
For each HardLink created, the file system increments a reference count stored with the data object, i.e. it stores how many file names refer to the data object, this counter is maintained (by the file system) within the data object itself. When a file name referencing a data object is deleted, the data object’s reference count is decremented by one. The data object itself only gets deleted when the reference count is decremented to zero.
The reference count is the only way of determining whether there are multiple file name references to a data object, and it only informs of their number NOT there whereabouts.
Junctions are wormholes in the tree structure of a directed graph. By browsing a Junction a maybe far distant location in the file system is made available. Modifying, Creating, Renaming and Deleting files within a junction tree structure operates at the junction target, i.e. if you delete a file in a Junction it is deleted at the original location.
Symbolic Links are to files what Junctions are to folders in that they are both transparent and Symbolic. Transparency means that an application can access them just as they would any other file, Symbolism means that the data objects can reside on any available volume, i.e. they are not limited to a single volume like Hardlinks. Symbolic Links differ from Shortcuts in that they offer a transparent pathway to the desired data object, with a shortcut (.lnk), something has to read and interpret the content of the shortcut file and then open the file that it references (i.e. it is a two step process). When an application uses a symlink it gains immediate access to the data object referenced by the symlink (i.e. it is a one step process).
- Supported platforms are NT4/W2K/WXP/W2K3/W2K8/WXP64/Vista/Vista/Windows7 in 32bit or 64bit.
- Hardlinks can only be made on NTFS volumes, under the supported platforms.
- Hardlinks can only be made within one NTFS volumes, and can not span across NTFS volumes.
- Junctions can not be created on NTFS volumes with NT4.
- The Pick Link Source and Drop ... choices are only visible, if it’s possible to create Hardlinks/Junctions/Symbolic Links. E.G.: If you select a file on a FAT drive and press the action button, you wont see the Pick Link Source in the action menu, because FAT file systems, don't support Hardlinks/Junctions/Symbolic Links. This also happens, if you select source files on a network drive, or select a file as destination, etc.
- There is an OS limit of creating more than 1023 hardlinks per file. This is less known, but it is there.
| in progress |
Version 3.4.0.0
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| August 3rd 2010 |
Version 3.3.5.8
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| February 21st 2010 |
Version 3.2.2.4
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| September 28th 2009 |
Version 3.1.6.0
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| October 4th 2008 |
Version 3.0.0.1
|
| June 21st 2008 |
Version 2.9.5.3
|
| May 1st 2008 |
Version 2.9.0.3
|
| January 20th 2008 |
Version 2.8.0.6
|
| October 16th 2007 |
Version 2.7.1.0
|
| March 25th 2007 |
Version 2.7.0.1
|
| January 12th 2007 |
Version 2.6.0
|
| December 27th 2006 |
Version 2.5.1
released
|
| December 6th 2006 |
Version 2.4.0
released
|
| November 26th 2006 |
Version 2.3.0
released
|
| June 16th 2006 |
Version 2.2.2
released
|
May 29th 2006 |
Version 2.2.1
released
|
| March 14th 2006 |
Version 2.1
released
|
| February 27th 2006 |
Version 2.0
released
|
| November 26th 2005 |
Version 1.7
released
|
| January 23rd 2002 |
Version 1.6
released
|
| October 27th 2001 |
Version 1.5
released
|
| March 23rd 2001 |
Version 1.201
released
|
| March 23rd 2001 |
Version 1.20
released
|
| March 20th 2001 |
Version 1.10 released
|
| May 8th 1999 | Version 1.00 released |
Felix Kasza for the hardlink basics with NT4.
Visual C++ Developer Journal shell extension examples.
Nullsoft for the great lean and mean nsis installer
Jose Flores for
the dbgtrap debug
monitor.
Jean-Pierre Bergamin
for the drag and drop
support samples.
Travis Illig
suggested to add the overlay icons for junctions, which he
uses in his
Junction Shell Extension.
Mark Russinovich for tips on
junction
Philip Daniels for a technical
writers documentation review
Daniel Thibault for the French
localisation, and for a dozen of bug reports and feature requests.
- With Vista & Windows7 the column handler in explorer, providing the reference count, does not work, since Microsoft deprecated the interfaces with respect to this functionality.
LSE is and will be freeware, but if LSE was really helpful for you and saved lots of your time please think of donations either via PayPal
or by sending me a gift certificate from
Link Shellextension also has its page on
Facebook, where you can find announcements for new releases,
and you can discuss feature requests
Link Shellextension broadcasts its release notes via
RSS.
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Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows Vista Windows 7 |
Please make sure that the necessary runtime .dlls are installed on your system.
This prerequisites package can be downloaded from Microsoft: Afterwards install the |
|
Windows XP64 Windows Vista64 Windows 7 64bit |
Please make sure that the necessary runtime .dlls are installed on your system.
This prerequisites package can be downloaded from Microsoft: Afterwards install the |
|
Windows Itanium Windows 7 Itanium |
Please make sure that the necessary runtime .dlls are installed on your system.
This prerequisites package can be downloaded from Microsoft: Afterwards install the |
| Windows NT4 |
The version for Windows NT will be no more activley developed on, and its functionality
is frozen with version 3.2.0.0, which basically has all the important features. |