Editing Symbolic link (section)

===Shell objects===
The ''shell objects''<ref>[https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms997573.aspx Creating Shell Extensions with Shell Instance Objects]. msdn.microsoft.com</ref> or ''shell folders'' are defined in the Windows registry and can be used to implement a sort of symbolic link too. Like folder shortcuts, they are transparent to the Windows shell.

A minimal implementation is (the CLSID ''{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}'' is used as a placeholder):

<syntaxhighlight lang="registry">
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}]
@="display name"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\DefaultIcon]
@="..." ; path to icon
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\InProcServer32]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\ShDocVw.Dll"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"Attributes"=hex:15,00,00,00
"Target"="..." ; absolute (WITHOUT "TargetKnownFolder" or "TargetSpecialFolder" only)
               ; or relative path to target
"TargetKnownFolder"="{guidguid-guid-guid-guid-guidguidguid}" ; GUID of target folder, Windows Vista and later
"TargetSpecialFolder"="0x00xy" ; CSIDL of target
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:00,00,00,00
</syntaxhighlight>
The ''My Documents'' folder on the ''Desktop'' as well as the ''Fonts'' and the ''Administrative Tools'' folders in the ''Control Panel'' are examples of ''shell objects'' redirected to file-system folders.