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An NTFS junction point is a feature of the NTFS file system that provides the ability to create a symbolic link to a directory which then functions as an alias of that directory. This has many benefits over a Windows shell shortcut (.lnk) file, such as allowing access to files within the directory via Windows Explorer, the Command Prompt, etc.

Junction points can only link to directories on a local volume; junction points to remote shares are unsupported.^[1]

Junction points are a type of NTFS reparse point; they were introduced with NTFS 3.0, the default file system for Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.0). The Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Resource Kits include a program called linkd,^[2] to create junction points; Mark Russinovich of Winternals released a tool called junction^[3] which provided more complete functionality. Windows XP includes fsutil reparsepoint. Windows NT 6.0 and later operating systems include an mklink command-line utility for creating junction points.

Examples of use[link]

Program redirection[link]

By setting a junction point that points to a directory containing a particular version of a piece of software, it may be possible to add another version of the software and redirect the junction point to point to the version desired.

Avoiding manual file synchronization[link]

Sometimes, you may require that two directories have exactly the same contents. If a separate directory is created for this, the two directories must also be kept in sync. Using an NTFS junction instead of a second directory can avoid this.

Saving disk space[link]

Since the contents of a junction do not take up any space (they simply point to the original files in the original directory) if you need to have multiple points of entry to a large directory, junction points will serve that purpose well. Do not confuse junction points with a copy of something as it simply points to the original. If directories need to be modified separately a junction cannot be used as it does not provide a distinct copy of the directory or files within.

Circumventing pre-defined paths[link]

Since reinstalling Windows (or installing a new version) often requires deleting the contents of the C: drive, it is advantageous to create multiple partitions so only one partition needs to be deleted during the installation. However, some programs don't let the user choose the installation directory, or install some of their files to the C: drive even when they are installed to a different drive. By creating a junction point, the program can be tricked into installing to a different directory.

Obtaining a list of junction points[link]

A list of all the junctions present on a disk volume can be obtained from an elevated Command Prompt as Admin by executing "dir /aL /s C:\", where "C:" is the volume to scan.

Observed effects[link]

Windows 2000/XP/2003[link]

Windows Explorer[link]

• Deleting a junction point using Windows Explorer will delete the targeted files immediately if using shift-delete.
• If the junction point is sent to the Recycle Bin, the targeted files will look safe, but will be deleted when the Recycle Bin is emptied.
• Moving the junction point to a different location on the same drive only moves the junction point. However, moving it to another drive turns the junction point into a regular directory and moves all files there (leaving the original targeted directory empty). Undoing the move puts the junction directory and its contents back on the original drive, but the original targeted directory is still empty (that is, the junction is not recreated).
• While walking through the directory with Windows Explorer, use shift-delete to delete directories; however, files can be deleted normally. Disabling the recycle bin for the drive hosting the junction point will allow regular deletion of folders.

Command Prompt (cmd.exe)[link]

• The dir command in Windows 2000 or later recognizes junction points, displaying <JUNCTION> instead of <DIR> in directory listings (use dir with the /A or /AL command-line switch).
• Any commands that would normally affect files inside a normal directory will act the same here. Thus the command del myjunction should not be used — this will just delete all the files in the targeted directory.
• The commands rmdir and move work fine with junctions, with the caveat that move won't let the junction move to another volume (as opposed to Windows Explorer, as mentioned above.)
• The rmdir command is safe in that it only deletes the junction point, not the targeted files.
• Whilst walking through the directory with the command line interface, files can be deleted, but unlike explorer, directories can also be deleted (using rmdir /s dirname for example.)
• Using the linkd command with the /d switch is a safe way to delete junction points.
• Windows XP and above, fsutil reparsepoint delete safely deletes junction points.
• The command attrib myjunction appended with -s -h -a -r will not work on a junction.

General[link]

• An infinite loop in the file structure can be created by placing a junction point in the directory it targets. This can confuse some tools which scan entire directory trees but do not check for junctions, such as Antivirus tools, which end up recursing until they crash or create a path name longer than 255 characters which causes a Windows API error and stops the recursion. Windows Vista and Windows 7 have an example of this in "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Application Data". Here "Application Data" is a junction that points to "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\" for compatibility with legacy applications.
• ACL inheritance is by design based on volumes and not working across junctions.

Windows Vista/7[link]

Windows in common[link]

Junction points are useless on removable media, even when they redirect to itself. The reason is that the target destination is converted to an absolute path (including drive letter) and stored on the destination point. On another computer the drive will be normally mapped on a different drive which results in void links. To avoid this misbehavior you must use symbolic links to directories, which is restricted on Windows Vista/7 to administrators.

Windows Explorer[link]

• Junction points are indicated with a shortcut overlay.
• Deleting a junction point using Explorer is now safe.
• A junction point can be restored from the recycle bin.

Symbolic link[link]

Windows Vista supports a new symbolic link capability that replaces junction points in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. They are designed to aid in migration and application compatibility with UNIX operating systems.^[4]

Unlike a junction point, a symbolic link can also point to a file or remote SMB network path. Additionally, the NTFS symbolic link implementation provides full support for cross-filesystem links. However, the functionality enabling cross-host symbolic links requires that the remote system also support them, which effectively limits their support to Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems.

References[link]

1. ^ Sysinternals Junction documentation
2. ^ Microsoft Knowledge Base, 2007-02-20, How to create and manipulate NTFS junction points, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205524/en-us
3. ^ Mark Russinovich, 2010-09-08, Junction, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768
4. ^ "Symbolic Links". MSDN. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365680.aspx. Retrieved 2007-07-20. 

External links[link]

• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – 'How to Create and Manipulate NTFS Junction Points'
• Junction command line utility from Microsoft TechNet
• Codeproject Article – discussion on the source code of a junction point utility, aimed at programmers
• PC Mag Article about adding any directory to the start menu (allowing a preview within the startmenu as a submenu).
• Link Shell Extension - free software to work with junctions, hard links, symbolic links and more complex features like Hardlink Clones and Symboliclink Clones.
• GetFoldersize - free software to list all junctions, hard links and symbolic links on your hard drive.

Warren Evan Spector
Spector at the November 30, 2010 release party for Epic Mickey at the Times Square Disney Store in Manhattan.
Born	(1955-10-02) October 2, 1955 (age 56)
Occupation	Video game designer
Spouse	Caroline L. Spector (née Skelley) (1987–present)

Warren Spector (born October 2, 1955)^[1] is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing video games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector. He is best known for the cyberpunk video games System Shock and Deus Ex.

Early life[link]

Spector grew up in Manhattan, which he described as a sometimes hostile environment where “short, pudgy, Jewish kids didn’t fare well.”^[1] He showed an intense devotion to whatever topic became his obsession at any given time, from dinosaurs and airplanes as a small boy, to an interest in law by the sixth grade. At age 13, Spector had decided he wanted to be a film critic, and by high school, his obsessions expanded to include cars and basketball.^[1]

Education[link]

Spector attended Northwestern University in Illinois, still intending to become a film critic, stating that he “knew more about movies than a lot of my teachers.” Spector earned his BSc in Communications at Northwestern, and went on to earn his MA in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas in Austin in 1980.^[1] His thesis was a critical history of Warner Bros. cartoons.^[2]

All through college, Spector enjoyed gaming, and “played Avalon Hill games mainly, and a lot of OGRE and G.E.V. games, and Rivets from Metagaming. It was all boardgames until I became friends with science-fiction writers who were into D&D games, so I gave the game a try. I was hooked.”^[1] Spector taught several undergraduate classes at the University of Texas at Austin, on the history, theory, and criticism of film.^[1]

Career[link]

In 1983, after a job at the Harry Ransom Center as an archivist in charge of the David O. Selznick collection ended after a few months, Spector “was sitting around, wondering how I was going to pay the next month’s rent, when I got a call from Chris Frink. He was a writer for a weekly entertainment magazine I used to edit in college. Anyway, he said that he was now editor of Space Gamer magazine and asked if I wanted a job. So, in the fall of 1983, I started as an editor.”^[1] Within a short time, Spector became the editor-in-chief for all Steve Jackson Games products, the company that owned and published Space Gamer magazine. Spector began producing role-playing games for the company, stating, “I supervised game development, typesetting, and the art and graphic departments.”^[1] Most notably, he developed Toon with colleague and high school buddy Greg Costikyan. In March 1987 he was hired by TSR, initially working on games such as Top Secret/S.I. and the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.^[1] Spector spent some time in TSR's R&D department, helping launch, among other things, Spelljammer.

Subsequently he entered the computer game industry worked with Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios. He worked on games including Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, and worked briefly on Dark Camelot, which later became Thief: The Dark Project. Later he founded Ion Storm Inc.'s Austin branch, which went on to develop Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows before being closed by owners Eidos Interactive in February 2005.^[3]

In 2004, Spector left Ion Storm to "pursue personal interests outside the company".^[4] In 2005, it was announced that he had established a new studio Junction Point Studios,^[5] where he is working on an unspecified game. A job advertisement for the studio called for artists for a game that has "classic Hollywood cartoons" featuring "cartoon mice, cats and wabbits". On July 13, 2007, it was announced that Disney Interactive had acquired Junction Point Studios.^[6] His first project with Disney Interactive is a project involving classic Disney characters, titled Epic Mickey. The game has been confirmed to be a Steampunk title and designed exclusively for the Wii;^[7] the game was released in 2010. Spector has contributed a great deal to video game theory, and constantly promotes the importance of proper execution of ideas in video games.^[8]

Personal life[link]

Warren met Caroline Chase in 1984 at a comic book store in Austin, Texas, where she was employed. Caroline got a job at Steve Jackson Games shortly afterwards, and shortly after that, the two began a romance. Warren and Caroline were married on April 11, 1987. He and Caroline sometimes worked together, such as on game supplements for the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.^[1]

Cameo appearances[link]

Warren Spector appears in many of the games which he helped design. In Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire and Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams he appears as the scientist Johann Schliemann Spector, known by the locals in Savage Empire by the alias Zipactriotl. In Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle he appears as the corrupt treasurer Spektor. In the first Ultima Underworld title, he appears as "an upset specter named Warren". In System Shock he voices one of the log files. In Deus Ex, the face of the character Ford Schick was modelled after him; in addition, "iamwarren" is one of the game's cheats (it causes electronic devices in the player's vicinity to malfunction spectacularly, a joke by the development team).

Credits[link]

Video games[link]

Spector in 2006

• Wing Commander (1990), ORIGIN Systems
• Wing Commander: The Secret Missions (1990), ORIGIN Systems
• Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990), ORIGIN Systems
• Bad Blood (1990), ORIGIN Systems
• Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991), ORIGIN Systems
• Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2 - Crusade (1991), ORIGIN Systems
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991), ORIGIN Systems
• Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992), ORIGIN Systems
• Shadowcaster (1993), ORIGIN Systems (Uncredited)^[9]
• Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993), ORIGIN Systems
• Wing Commander: Privateer - Righteous Fire (1993), ORIGIN Systems
• Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993), ORIGIN Systems
• Ultima VII, Part Two: The Silver Seed (1993), Electronic Arts
• Wings of Glory (1993), Electronic Arts
• System Shock (1994), Looking Glass Technologies
• CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995), ORIGIN Systems
• Crusader: No Remorse (1995), ORIGIN Systems
• Thief: The Dark Project (1998), Looking Glass Studios
• Deus Ex (2000), Ion Storm Austin
• Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003), Ion Storm Austin
• Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004), Ion Storm Austin
• Epic Mickey (2010), Disney Interactive Studios
• Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012), Disney Interactive Studios

Spector is usually credited as a producer, except for Deus Ex on which he is also credited as project director.

Role-playing games[link]

• Toon – Developer (1984), Steve Jackson Games
• Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game – Editor (1988), TSR, Inc.
• Uncanny X-Men Boxed Set – Editor (1990), TSR, Inc.

Novels[link]

• Double Agent: Royal Pain/The Hollow Earth Affair by Richard Merwin/Warren Spector ISBN 0-88038-551-0

Comics[link]

• DuckTales- Boom! Studios - (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Warren Spector

• Junction Point Studios developer blog (usually Warren Spector, but sometimes other team members)
• Junction Point Studios, Inc. official website
• Warren Spector at MobyGames
• Warren Spector at the Internet Movie Database
• Spector is interviewed on a variety of game industry related topics
• Spector on Grand Theft Auto and video game violence
• Interview with Warren Spector about Ultima VII: Serpents Isle
• Interview at EuroGamer