What is the difference between a copy and a shortcut?

Answer 1

When you copy something, you create a clone file, and those two files are completely independent of each other, that means if something happens to one file (ie if you delete it), then nothing will happen to the clone of the file, and it works vice versa. On the other hand, a shortcut is dependant on the file it is leading to. If something happens to the mother file (lets just call it that), like deletion, then the shortcut will be useless. What a shortcut does is just keeps you from going into a bunch of directories (aka, my computer, or documents, etc.) to access a certain file.

Source: 10 years of using computers

Answer 2

Both functions do the same thing by placing a shortcut where you want it to be. Its only the method that's slightly different.

If you right-click on an icon and hold the button in, the folder where you release the button gives a little menu where you can choose "create shortcut". So when you click the "create shortcut" option, it places a shortcut there of the item you dragged there.

If you right-click an icon and click "copy" in the menu that comes up, then you can go to another folder, right-click and click on "paste shortcut" and it will place the shortcut there.

Answer 3

I don’t know