Visual Studio 2019: Linking to folder

I am trying to link to a folder that is not inside the project directory. To give an example,

If my project is in C:\project and I have a folder C:\shared, how can I manage to link C:\shared into the project (and being able to edit/view the files in Solution Explorer) without making a copy of the directory and placing it into the project directory.

I need this due to the fact that many projects will use this folder and it would be ideal to have them edit/use the same files rather than copy the folder into each project individually. That way if a bug is fixed in one project, all other projects will now use the fixed files as well.

For more context, this is a C++ project using Visual Studio 2019.

What I've tried/considered.

Additional include directories

Problem: This does not show the files in the Solution Explorer

Dragging/dropping the folder (or copy/pasting) as seen in another StackOverflow thread.

Problem: This just crashes my visual studio completely. The folder is quite large so I assume that's related to why.

Appreciate any insight on how to proceed. It's really unfortunate that this is a pain, I would think that something like this would be common, but all the posts I've seen related to it have either gone unanswered or could not be applied to my situation.

Thanks.

Solution

Shared Projects are the key here.. I just found out they existed. After creating one, drop the folder/files in the same directory that has .vcxitems file. Now in the project you want to include the shared folder, right click your solution, Add -> Existing Project and select your .vcxitems file.