Windows 7 Taskforce

Junctions in Explorer: when double-clicked, navigate to the referenced folder

Submitted by sfsdfd on June 28, 2009 to Aesthetics, Annoyance, Usability

Problem: The Vista FS introduced (or, at least, made heavier use of) junctions.

Junctions are like hard-coded, undeletable folder shortcuts that point to other locations. The idea here is that when a filesystem standard changes - e.g., when MS decides to rename "Documents and Settings" to "Users" (an EXCELLENT choice, btw) - it doesn't want to break legacy compatibility with any apps that happen to have hard-coded a reference to the "Documents and Settings" folder. (This was bad design, anyway; designers should know to refer to path variables like "%WINDOWS%" instead.)

Both the Vista Explorer and the W7 Explorer go to great lengths to protect these junctions. They are not renamable, movable, editable, or deletable; they are usually hidden; they are treated as system files. All well and good.

However, both the Vista Explorer and the W7 Explorer do something odd. The junction looks like a folder, and points to another folder... but if you double-click on the junction, you receive a terse "Access is denied" message.

Wouldn't it be better to simply present the junction in the same manner as a shortcut, and to navigate Explorer to the target of the junction?

Thus, if the user double-clicks the "Documents and Settings" junction, why not redirect the Explorer window to the "Users" folder to which the junction points?

Solution: When a user double-clicks a junction, navigate the Explorer window to the folder targeted by the junction.

Severity: Medium

Impact: Medium

Status: Not fixed

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