I use a NAS to store files I do not directly need on my notebook hard drive (due to limited space on my SSD). From time to time I need to boot Windows and I regularly use this opportunity to scan my complete system for viruses. The installed free version of Avira Antivir, like most other free scanners (as far as I know), prevents scans on network drives. This feature is reserved for the professional version. Apart from the safety aspect, this has been annoying me for a while…

Playing around with different mount techniques to get the antivirus software to scan my network shares, I eventually stumbled over symbolic links (surprise). What I did not know: you can create symbolic links not only of files or directories, but also network shares.

Symbolic links from network shares can easily created in with the mklink /d command. (Found it on MS TechNet and in the Windows 7 forum).

C:\>mklink /d "c:\folder" "\\NAS-NAME\folder"

You need administrative rights (an administrator cmd shell). You can then use the explorer to browse into the newly created (linked) directory and scan it with your virus scanner.