Better ENB, SKSE. etc. Management with Link Shell Extension?

[mikegray]

Hey guys!

 

It started when I wanted to update an ENB using ENB Changer - and remembered that I had added some extra SMAA stuff to the Skyrim root folder that I was going to have to locate and remove manually. One thing lead to another, and I ended up realizing just how much miscellaneous crap has built up in my \Skyrim folders - all notwithstanding MO. I eventually trashed the whole folder and copied in my backup vanilla installation from the NAS.

 

But there's got to be a better way of doing this - and it seems like that Link Shell Extension stuff ought to be a viable alternative.

 

What I'd like to do is have two folders:

 

\Skyrim\etc.

and

\Skyrim Extra Stuff\etc.

 

But then I'd like Windows to see the contents of "\Skyrim Extra Stuff\etc." as being present in "\Skyrim\etc." Then I could install ENBs or new versions of SKSE to the "Skyrim Extra Stuff" directory. And if I want to get rid of them, I delete everything in "Skyrim Extra Stuff" and it all just magically disappears from "\Skyrim\."

 

(And of course, it would be even cooler to have Windows also redirect any new files written to "\Skyrim\" to "\Skyrim Extra Stuff\." But maybe that's asking too much.)

 

Anyway, after downloading and installing Link Shell Extension, I've realized that the tool is more complicated than I thought (what the heck is a "DeLorean Mirror"??) - and just a little dangerous too!

 

So ... could anyone walk me through this?

Edited November 10, 2014 by mikegray

[GrantSP]

Personally I don't believe you will gain anything from using any form of re-direction: symlinks, hardlinks, clones, copies, or whatever other variant there is.

While technically Windows will see these new locations as the original, the tools that you use to mod or organize Skyrim will probably not.

They may look to the registry or ini files or some other method to 'see' where the Skyrim executable, and the associated assets are. This may result in conflicts when the tool finds the executable in one place and the assets in another. Or one tool that relies on another to do it's work has to navigate between real locations and linked locations.

 

There is already one error thread here on STEP about a user that came across problems when using symlinks.

 

If you truly want to ease the pain from possible rogue files remaining in your Skyrim directory you could always write some batch files or scripts that remove/restore/delete the files that you want or don't want in that directory.

 

As for Delorean Mirror (sic). It is one method of making backups of files and could be employed in doing what you want. Though it is probably more than what you are wanting and definitely not something that falls under the purview of STEP's forum. More of a general computing question rather than a modding question.

 

Honestly, once you get your system running the way you want it, it shouldn't be too hard to maintain that folder. Each time you try a new ENB or some other tool just take note of what gets changed and be sure to make backups if necessary.

[fireundubh]

Directory Junctions are a bit different from normal symbolic links. I use them all over the place, but I don't know why you'd use them instead of MO.

 

https://ss64.com/nt/mklink.html