Question

Can I use NTFS junctions (or symbolic links in Vista/7) with My Films?

Background

Normally you should not need to use NTFS junctions (or symbolic links in Vista/7) for My Films since you can specify as many paths as you wish to search for movies or images/artwork.  Most catalogs contain the full path to your movie file(s) in the XML so MyFilms will always find your movies and artwork.l.

You may use NTFS Junctions or symbolic links, for example if you ran out of available free drive letters, when your hard disk has no drive letter (e.g. D:) but you mount it to an empty NTFS folder (by using Disk Management).

Answer

It is not recommended to use NTFS junctions or symbolic links for your movie directories.  While it does basically work, you may have issues, e.g. if you use the 'search only' method to find/play movies (i.e. no path entered in as source file) and your conjunction is currently unavailable, My Films can't start your available movies.

Solution: Instead of using NTFS junctions path in My Films config as e.g. 'D:\mount1\movies' or '\\localhost\d$\mount1\movies' you have to share your 'movies' folder. The path will be '\\<hostname_or_ip>\<share name'>'.

If you don't want to expose your share to your network, put '$' at the end of your share name so it will be invisible, but accessible - or use personal permissions.