Seeking expert advice - guidance on applying Symbolic Link

PC Pilot

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Hi,

Hope somebody can point me in the right direction here. I have successfully relocated my C:\Users folder (but NOT ProgramData) to D:\Users (Kari's excellent tutorial) on clean install and by creating test user profiles verified access to Metro Apps and Store Sign In/Download/Install.

I wish to relocate ONE of my "User profiles" to a new location at the root of a drive (D:\, F:\ or whatever). I have done this for many years (and certainly since XP was launched) on all my systems without issue. In Windows 7 this was accomplished by modifying the registry key for that user's profile (HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Profile List ...IRC) such that the ProfileImagePath was reassigned to D:\User1 or whatever. Whilst this still works in Windows 8 at desktop level the Metro Apps and Store Sign in/Download/Install do not.

I am also aware that by using the "location" tab within the "Properties" menu of virtual folders (Documents, Favorites, Music etc.) these can be redirected to any location desired but.....I wish to relocate the entire "User" folder for that Profile Key and as far as I know there is no way to invoke such a "shell folder" function for each given "User" folder.

This got me to thinking:tip: of an alternate way to reassign the path without recourse to the registry editor. I know very little about Symbolic Links however at first glance the mklink /j "junction" command seemed perfect for the task. So I have experimented with various 'dummy' user profiles and, probably due to my complete lack of knowledge and understanding of these Symbolic Links, have had no success in achieving my objective.

Initially, mklink /j command reported that "It could not create a file as one already existed" so I can only assume that mklink /j requires that the source directory folder DOES NOT exist before creating the link. (Assumption based upon experimentation where mklink /j happily created junctions for NON Existent folders in the "D:\Users" folder. For example I could create a symbolic link for "D:\Users\Blogs" to say "D:\Blogs" provided that there was no "Blogs" folder already in existence in the Users folder).

This now introduced another problem, namely that when creating the new User Profile "Blogs" subsequent to creating the symbolic link above, Windows 8 decided NOT to place its contents in the newly created "Blogs" folder as I had hoped but rather to create its own "entirely new" folder "Blogs.ComputerName" once again leaving me with no means to create the desired link :(.

I am at a loss as to what I am doing wrong here?? How I can achieve my objective WHILST still having functioning Metro Apps?? If the Registry Editor is the ONLY way, what additional key(s) need modifying to satisfy the Metro Apps??

Any advice/guidance much appreciated....

Thanks,

PC Pilot
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self Build
    CPU
    I7 920
    Motherboard
    Asus P6T7 WS SuperComputer with U3S6 Controller Card
    Memory
    6GB Corsair Dominator (3 X 2G) PC3 15000 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II - ENGTX560 Ti DCII2DI1GD5
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