Can I make windows treat Shortcuts to Folders the same it would a Folder?

In Windows Vista and 7 you can use NTFS symbolic link. Wikipedia states that "the NTFS symbolic link implementation provides full support for cross-filesystem links."

If you're not comfortable using the command line program mklink, you can use Link Shell Extension. After downloading and installing the software, follow the step-by-step guide in "Using Link Shell Extension". Basically you select the folder on the external/remote drive, click "pick link source", go back to the original drive and choose "drop as Symbolic Link".

I have not personally tested this method. Please let me know if my instructions don't work.

In Windows 10, Windows 7 Professional, and possibly other versions, you can create 'Folder shortcuts' without any command line work or any external tools. Here is how:

1. Navigate to "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu"
2. In a separate window, open the parent folder of your new shortcut's target-folder (where the shortcut will point to)
3. Right-click and drag the target-folder into the 'Start Menu' folder.
4. Click 'Create shortcuts here'.
5. Move the new shortcut to the desired location.

The shortcut will be sorted with folders, will show up in the navigation pane, and can be pinned to quick access (and the start menu).

However, if you go into the properties of the shortcut, you will not be able to change the target, keyboard shortcut, icon, or any other properties.

Additional Information:

The shortcut will also produce a bizarre path in explorer. For example, if a shortcut to the C:\Users\USER folder is placed in the C:\Users\USER\Documents folder, the following path will be shown when it is opened:

C:\Users\USER\Documents\USER-Shortcut

Any further navigations made from that point will show up in the 'clickable path' in explorer, but will not show up in the 'raw-text path'. For example, opening the shortcut, opening 'Documents', then opening the shortcut again, would produce the following paths:

This PC > System (C) > Users > USER > Documents > USER-Shortcut > Documents > USER-Shortcut

And

C:\Users\USER\Documents\USER-Shortcut

After this number of navigations, the main explorer pane will show a normal .lnk shortcut called 'target(.lnk)', which points to the folder-shortcut's target. If this is opened, it will act like any other .lnk file normally would, removing the unusual path.

You can also create shortcuts like this in windows XP Pro, and 2000. The thread I found this on is located at: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/53274-Cool-trick-with-folder-shortcuts-(XP-Pro-2000)
To create the shortcuts in windows XP and 2000, follow the steps I have listed, but drag the shortcut onto the start button instead of the 'Start menu' folder. However, the above thread also mentions that in older versions, deleting the shortcut can delete the folder as well, so be cautious.

This has driven me crazy as well. Here's the only way I've found:

0) Let's say you've got 10 real folders and 10 shortcuts to folders elsewhere and all 20 are in a parent folder, and you're frustrated because the shortcuts alphabetize at the bottom instead of alphabetizing by name with the real folders.

1) make a dummy folder within the parent folder, named "zzz-real folders", to alphabetize at the bottom.

2) put all the real folders in this new folder

3) within that folder make shortcuts of all these real folders

4) drag the shortcuts out (up a level) to the original parent folder

5) voilà - now you have a list of alphabetized shortcuts that includes everything you wanted, with the dummy folder at the bottom

If this is still a problem for some people I'm a Windows 7 User my simple solution (Sadly I know Windows XP doesn't have this) after seeing the "Add to Network Idea" (As this was taking to long) I decided to Add the Folder to a Library with File Explorer so when I was asked by TSLPatcher for folder I would simply go the Library and then Select the folder.

My Situation
Was installing Old Mods into an Old Game (Star Wars: Kotor2) installed by Steam. Which meant the Mod Installer kept asking me for the folder through a simple Folder Tree Selector (Not the one where I can copy and Paste the Folder) so for every mod I had to navigate through every folder again and again and Steam hides its games deep within its own Folder (Hard Drive> Programs> Steam> Steamapps> Common> Folder)

Steps
1. Open Any Folder
2. Look for "Libraries" in a Side Bar to your Left
3. Right-Click on "Liraries" to add Library
4. Open New Library > Click "Include a Folder" > Then Choose Folder by Finding or Copy and Paste Folder Path (Info on how is Below...Instructions are Beginner and Advance Users...cause not everyone knows Rocket Science or is Stupid)

Alt to Step 3 [ALT] Left-Click "Libraries" > Instead of adding a Library just use anyone (If your doing this Temporary) > Click locations link beside "Includes" > Click on "Add" > either Navigate to Directory or Copy & Paste File Path from Address Bar into Bar beside "Folder:"

The Steps I took to get to a Folder without Library - Screenshots
The Steps I didn't take with Library - Screenshots

Don't use shortcuts. Instead, use hard links or volume mount points

Edit: The simplest way is to create a mount point for the root folder, but it has a couple of limitations: you MUST redirect a whole folder and you MUST use a complete volume as destination. To do that, create an empty NTFS folder where you will redirect your volume and then open disk manager, select your volume, right-click on it and select "change drive letter and path", remove the drive letter mapping (if any and if you want to) and add the path of the EMPTY NTFS folder.

Hard links are a bit more delicate to use and, upon reflexion, it won't help you on since all links must point to the same volume (which isn't your case).

Use a junction. You can use the Link Shell Extension ( http://schinagl.priv.at ). Best of all, programs won't notice.

I was able to do something similar to what you're asking for in Windows XP, but pointing to network locations rather than an external drive, but you may still be able to get it to work. Basically if you go to My Network Places and click the "Add a network place" option and type the path into the wizard it will generate a shortcut that is treated like a folder. I've used this in my workplace when for various reasons I can't assign a drive letter to a network location that my users need to access frequently. I'm sure you've solved your problem by now but hopefully this helps someone else at some point.

Here's what I did in Windows 7 Pro. I created a new folder in Documents with the same or similar name as my shortcut folder, then simply moved the shortcut "file" to my new folder. For example, I wanted all my scans to go someplace where I could find and access them easily. The original path of my scanned files folder was: Owner > My Pictures > CC4 (name of my scanner) > Scan. Here's what I did:

1. Create a Shortcut of the scanned files folder; I named in "Scans from ..."
2. Move that Shortcut to "Documents" - of course, this puts the Shortcut Folder down in the files list, not up among the main Folders where I want it and would normally look for it.
3. I then created a new folder in Documents that I named "SCANS"
4. I moved my new Shortcut that was listed among my files to the folder called SCANS. Done. Now my shortcut folder called "Scans from ..." is listed in a folder called SCANS that is part of my regular folder hierarchy.