SavesBinder

A lightweight Windows tool to centralize your game saves using NTFS directory junctions.

Move your saves to a single, safe location while keeping the original paths fully functional. Built with C#, WinUI 3 and Windows App SDK.

Created by a gamer, for gamers :3

Why SavesBinder?

Games scatter save files all over the place: Documents, AppData\Roaming, AppData\Local, custom folders, etc.

SavesBinder lets you gather all of them into one clean folder for easy backup. Using NTFS junctions, games keep reading and writing to their original paths without even knowing anything changed.

Features

• Easy binding – Move a game's save folder to your central storage and leave a working junction in its place.
• Centralized storage – Keep all your saves in one dedicated directory.
• Broken link detection – Use "Verify & Restore Broken Links" to quickly repair junctions after reinstalling Windows or changing drives.
• Native NTFS junctions – Uses Windows directory junctions (mklink /J). No admin rights required.
• Portable – Put the entire app folder anywhere and run SavesBinder.exe. Settings are stored in settings.json next to it.
• Safe by design – Built-in confirmations, path validation, nesting checks, disk space checks and rollback on failure.
• Bilingual UI – Russian and English.
• Clean WinUI 3 interface – Modern, minimal and easy to use.

How It Works

[Original Path] (e.g. %APPDATA%\Game) ──(move files)──> [Central Storage] (e.g. D:\GameSaves\Game)
                │                                        ▲
                └──────────(NTFS junction)───────────────┘

1. Set your Database file (simple JSON), Central storage folder and the game's current save path.
2. Click Bind. SavesBinder moves the folder to storage and creates a junction at the original location.
3. The game works as before. Your saves are now in one place.

Requirements

• Windows 10 22H2 / Windows 11
• NTFS formatted drives
• .NET 8 Desktop Runtime (if not present)
• Windows App Runtime 2.5 (if not present)

Download & Usage

Pre-built (recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download the latest .zip archive (portable folder).
3. Extract it anywhere (e.g. D:\Tools\SavesBinder\).
4. Run SavesBinder.exe.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Visual Studio 2022 with .NET Desktop Development and Windows App SDK workloads
• Or CLI with dotnet SDK

git clone https://github.com/valsaven/SavesBinder.git
cd SavesBinder
dotnet restore
dotnet build SavesBinder.csproj -p:Platform=x64

To create a portable publish:

dotnet publish SavesBinder.csproj -c Release -p:Platform=x64

The output will be in bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\publish\.

Important Notes

• This tool uses directory junctions. They only work on NTFS volumes.
• Always make a quick backup of important saves before binding them for the first time.
• Do not delete junctions manually in File Explorer. Use Unbind, Restore or Delete in the app to avoid data loss.
• Use Verify & Restore Broken Links after reinstalling Windows, moving drives or restoring from backup.
• If you run the app from a read-only location (like Program Files), settings.json will not be saved.
• The app is portable — moving the whole folder keeps your settings and DB file if paths are relative or unchanged.

Screenshots

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.