About

File alias.

By contrast, a soft link (symbolic link) on such file systems is not a link to a file itself, but to a file name. This creates aliasing, but in a different way. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link can link to any file on any computer.

Operating System

Windows

Windows shortcut are not symbolic link 

C:\Users\gerard>mklink
Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

Example for the preferences directory of Eclipse: 

mklink /H "D:\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime" 
"D:\svn\Config\Eclipseorg.eclipse.core.runtime"