Directory symbolic link not recognized as folder in open file dial

Hello everybody,

The file dialogs of Vista do not recognize directory symbolic links as
folders but as files. To demonstrate, run the following commands:

1. Start cmd as Administrator and execute the following commands:

2. cd \Users\Public
3. mkdir TestFolder
4. mkdir TestSubfolder
5. cd TestFolder
6. mklink /D TestSubfolder \\<computername>\Public\TestSubfolder

7. Start Textpad:

8. Select menu Open file
9. Navigate in dialog to \Public\TestFolder
10. Double-click TestSubfolder

The last action results in the following error message:

You don't have permission to open file.

Also, changing ownership of the shortcut does not change the situation. A
similar result can be observed trying the Save file dialog, which tries to
replace the directory symbolic link.

Windows Explorer on the other hand recognizes directory symbolic links
properly as folders.

Surely, this cannot be the intended behavior of the file dialog?
Is there any solution?

Kind regards, Bjorn

Hello,

I can confirm this behavior. It appears to be a bug in the file/open and
file/save dialog.

--
- JB
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Thanks for confirming, I was afraid it would be. No fix around? How do I
notify MS of this bug or is it magically taken care of?

Although it is not breaking but rather annoyingly inconvenient for my
selective and transparent sharing of private documents over all my personal
computers (using offline folders and symbolic links).

Bjorn

"Jimmy Brush" <> wrote in message
news:92AC0504-2FA4-44CC-B4B7-...
> Hello,
>
> I can confirm this behavior. It appears to be a bug in the file/open and
> file/save dialog.
>
> --
> - JB
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Hello,

I will submit a bug report to Microsoft about this issue. As a workaround,
things seem to work OK if you just make the symbolic link to
\\server\rootshare. So, if you create shares on the "server" computer for
the folders you need to access, and then link to those shares directly
instead of through other shares, it should work.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User


"Bjorn" <> wrote in message
news:E5BA452A-95F3-48A5-AC35-...
> Thanks for confirming, I was afraid it would be. No fix around? How do I
> notify MS of this bug or is it magically taken care of?
>
> Although it is not breaking but rather annoyingly inconvenient for my
> selective and transparent sharing of private documents over all my
> personal computers (using offline folders and symbolic links).
>
> Bjorn
>
> "Jimmy Brush" <> wrote in message
> news:92AC0504-2FA4-44CC-B4B7-...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I can confirm this behavior. It appears to be a bug in the file/open and
>> file/save dialog.
>>
>> --
>> - JB
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>