What is the **reason** that "Windows can't make a shortcut here" ?


  1. Posts : 22
    Win 10 Pro
       #1

    What is the **reason** that "Windows can't make a shortcut here" ?


    I need to reduce the volume of my C:\ drive by about half; it is a 222GB partition of an SSD drive at the moment. My plan is just to move as many folders that are today in C:\ to the internal non-SSD drive of my laptop, and replace the folders with "shortcuts" to the real folders. It seems that I have enough space to keep the folders Program Files, Program Files (x86), Prorgran Data, Users, and Windows intact on the soon-to-be-shrunk partition.

    WHen I began to carry this out, of course I discovered that "Windows can't make a shortcut here" when I tried to drag-and-drop "create a shortcut here" to the C:\ drive. I am not asking for a work-around. But I'd like to learn if there is some rational reason that MS makes me do a whole little series of annoying and useless mouse-clicks to accomplish what I wanted to do.

    It's as if the dialog box that pops up really should say "windows can't make a shortcut here ,,,, unless we first annoy the sh*t out of you. Enjoy the REST of your day (i.e. the part AFTER the next 10 mouse ciicks -- they're on us)."

    I can't help but hope that the energy that was spent making it difficult to put a shortcut where i'd like it to go was done for a higher purpose.

    THanks for any insight/explanation.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 42,737
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    Hi, you cannot arbitrarily move sections of the OS to a different drive. Depending on precisely what you were doing:
    But I'd like to learn if there is some rational reason that MS makes me do a whole little series of annoying and useless mouse-clicks to accomplish what I wanted to do.
    MS has put some levels of protection in place to try to prevent users accessing things they shouldn't.


    I have over 300 progs installed and use about 140Gb of 256GB of my SSD. I keep almost all of my personal files on my HDD.

    What you can move is limited e.g.
    Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10 | Tutorials

    You can relocate user folders using the location tab, but users have made horrible mistakes doing that.
    My view is it's safer to create your own folders and use those, rather than the defaults which get can be filled with folders created by programs the user installs. You can create your own libraries and add folders to libraries.

    These may help:
    Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10 | Tutorials
    Free Up Disk Space Now with Storage Sense in Windows 10 | Tutorials
    Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10 | Tutorials

    And a third party tool such as Wiztree (free) gives both a tree and a VERY helpful 3D 'cushion' map of disk usage.

    Don't forget to disable hibernation using the powercfg command.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 63
    Win 10 10 Pro
       #3

    I can't tell you the real reason, but I did dig around on my daughter's PC
    where the system drive was getting much larger than I thought it should be.

    On her PC, LOTS of space was tied up in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local
    Google, Apple were the main culprits
    Apple contained both iTunes & iPhone Backups - several of them, some of these backups were of long since dead phones.

    I have no idea if my daughter could have directed stuff into other drives & folders.
    Fact is, she didn't. She just took the defaults like she and the rest of the world always will.

    I'm going to re-visit those Tutorials and also get WizTree.

    (FYI I have a 60GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, - not that many apps installed and have very few problems.
    All my "standard" folders are relocated to 1TB HDD at D:\Users\<myusername>\ )

    spilly
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 42,737
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #4

    It can be surprising how much space is taken up by dmp or even log files in odd places, for example. Wiztree is great at immediately showing you where to look.

    And as you say, some programs leave substantial debris.

    Occasional routine use of Disk clean-up (from rt click, properties of a drive) and Ccleaner help (note Ccleaner has attracted some adverse comment after changing hands).
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 22
    Win 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Hi, you cannot arbitrarily move sections of the OS to a different drive. Depending on precisely what you were doing:
    I mentioned in my original post that

    I have enough space to keep the folders Program Files, Program Files (x86), Prorgran Data, Users, and Windows intact on the soon-to-be-shrunk partition
    That is, i'll keep those folders in their original place. I'll add to that list the pagefile and swapfile.

    I agree that most of my bloat is in %appdata%, and it seems i can get rid of enough of it so that I can keep those 5 folders and 2 files in their original place. So I'm not arbitrarily moving sections of the OS; I'm carefully NOT moving certain sections, and as a side issue, it'd be great if someone could tell me that this is likely to cause no problems.

    But what i asked is a bit different, and although I thank everyone for their help and advice, I think I've received only one answer to my question; and if that answer is even close to correct, well, i'd be sorry to hear it. The answer given was that Microsoft is trying to protect me from doing sometihng stupid, that i shouldn't be doing. Hmmm. My question was why WIndows "can't" put a shortcut in the folder C:\. As far as I undstand what people have written so far, there's nothing particularly dangerous about putting shortcuts there; what's potentially dangerous is REPLACING FOLDERS that are there with shortcuts. From the beginning, I wasn't going to do that.

    I find i'm running into so many things that Windows makes just more difficult and less productive than necessary, that the underlying reason I started to shrink the C:\ drive and put in a new partition there seems like a better and better idea. The reason was to be able to install and run Debian, and relegate that windows partition to run inside a VirtualBox VM within debian. Apart from the gain in speed and productivity, I tihnk I"m really looking forward to be able to just "x" out that WIndows VM when its annoyed me beyond some threshold :).

    THank you all for the replies. I'll report back a few days after I have replaced everything BUT those folders and files with shortcuts, to post if indeed the problems have been "terrible" or "non-existant"

    /scott
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 989
    Microsoft Windows 10 Home
       #6

    Have you tried modifying the permissions on C:\ to give your user account 'Full Control'?

    You'd have to take ownership of the C: drive from trustedInstaller, then add your username and give it full control, then, to be good, return ownership to TrustedInstaller (you have to enter 'NT Service\TrustedInstaller' when you 'choose a principal' to do this.

    Keith
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 6,789
    22H2 64 Bit Pro
       #7

    KeithM said:
    Have you tried modifying the permissions on C:\ to give your user account 'Full Control'?

    You'd have to take ownership of the C: drive from trustedInstaller, then add your username and give it full control, then, to be good, return ownership to TrustedInstaller (you have to enter 'NT Service\TrustedInstaller' when you 'choose a principal' to do this.

    Keith
    @sbpetrack


    Don't do that:

    Change Owner of File, Folder, Drive, or Registry Key in Windows 10 | Tutorials

    Warning
    Do not change the owner of your Windows drive (ex: C: ). Doing so could result in Windows becoming very unstable.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 6,789
    22H2 64 Bit Pro
       #8

    FYI: Can't create a shortcut in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Startup - Windows 10 Forums

    Try creating the shortcut elsewhere then copy and paste it.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 989
    Microsoft Windows 10 Home
       #9

    That's why I said to return ownership to TrustedInstaller after adding the permissions entry.

    As an alternative, symbolic links/junctions can be created at the root from and Administrator command prompt.

    Keith
      My Computer


 

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