[tex-live] Copying symbolic links to Windows

[poti at potis.org]

I am having some difficulty with symbolic links. I have included 
TeX Live 2007 on a DVD (statlive.org) which is designed to be a 
cross-platform integrated development environment which has been 
well received at conferences this summer. In principle, it would 
be nice if the directory containing the necessary files could be 
copied onto a PC hard drive (effectively installing the GNU operating 
system user experience without the kernel) and back onto removable
media from such a hard drive. 

The problem is, to maintain the cross-platform feature and to 
avoid the need for an installer, I need to copy Linux and OSX
symbolic links (for example, those in the TeXLive2007/bin/*-darwin 
directories).

On some PCs, I can do this (I am at a Windows XP pc where I just did), and 
on others, I cannot (e.g. a brand new, off the shelf, Windows Vista laptop
and a Windows Server 2003). Unzipping a zip archive containing such links
also fails, even on the PC where I can copy the links. It seems to be 
an issue with permissions or security settings of some sort. If someone 
who has already payed the price of learning the intricacies of Windows could 
suggest where I could look to learn how such symbolic links 
(not the new Vista symbolic links, unless the procedure is the same) can 
be handled, I would be very grateful.

-Poti