Question: I have dragged a folder from a Nautilus window to the desktop, holding Ctrl+Shift to create a shortcut (well, a symbolic link). However, when I open it from the desktop, instead of showing `/home/scott/Documents/asd/folder` it shows `/home/scott/Desktop/folder`. But sometimes I want to go up a level or two, and can only go to `Desktop`, not `asd`.

I understand that's how symbolic links work, but is there a way to create a shortcut to the target folder directly?

Answer: 
Right-click on Desktop (or in any folder in Nautilus), Create Launcher, set Type to Location, set the name type and type in the location (annoyingly if you click Browse it will only accept a file), click OK.
Create a launcher with the command

```
nautilus "$path"

```

where `$path` is the folder path.