I was just playing on the windows cli, trying to create a shortcut to a mysql binary directory, where I noticed that a shortcut/link to a directory didn’t behave as I initially expected it to do. Enter Jon Coombs on superuser.com:
:\Users\user5\Desktop>mklink /D mysymlink "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\S tart Menu\Programs\G" symbolic link created for mysymlink <<===>> C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Sta rt Menu\Programs\G C:\Users\user5\Desktop>cd mysymlink C:\Users\user5\Desktop\mysymlink>
Because I created my symlink outside of my user directory, I had to create it using administrator privileges and added privileges to my user via advanced security settings.