Junction/Soft Link Solves "Extensions" Folder Problems & Fixes Vortex Mod Manager

[Mystic5hadow]

Not sure if anyone else has discovered this or suggested it, but for those who do not know what a "Junction/Soft Link" or even what a "Symbolic Link" is you should do a quick Google search.

Basically, it allows you to create a folder in a different location but the same hard drive/ssd as another folder that links back to it. As far as your computer is concerned, they're two different folders but contain the same content. Adding or removing things via either the linked folder or the original will affect both, however with a Junction only the original folder properly exists and uses any space on your drive. You can delete the linked folder and not lose any of the files inside as they will still reside in the original, however anything that you setup to look for that linked folder will need to be redirected to the original folder or a different folder entirely.

Now, as we all know with X4 mods, some work only when placed in the "extensions" folder in the game root directory, while others only when in the Documents folder. Also, if you happen to use the Vortex Mod Manager then you know it only installs to the Documents folder.
What has worked for me and required only a second of effort, is to create a junction/soft link from the game root folder and use it to replace the extensions folder in Documents. Now any mod installed, be it manually or via Vortex, is essentially installed only once, but is in both locations. Negating any problems that would have arisen due to being placed in either one location or the other.

The easiest way to do this for those not used to working with Symlinks, would be to download a program like Link Shell Extension. This program simply adds linking options to your right-click menu for folders and files.

Assuming that is what you're using, all you need to do after installing it is:
1) Go to your "extensions" folder in (My Documents/egosoft/X4), cut the entire contents of your "extensions" folder and paste them into your "extensions" folder located in your X4 game root directory (for Steam users: "Steam Library/steamapps/common/X4 Foundations").
2) Delete the "extensions" folder located in My Documents.
3) Right-click the "extensions" folder located in the game root directory, click "pick link source".
4) Go back to your X4 folder under My Documents, right-click > "Drop As..." > "Junction", this will create a linked folder named "extensions" that links back to the one located in your root install.

Done! Easy. Now any mod you install will work regardless where you put it and you can easily use the Vortex Mod Manager without having to edit anything.