How-To Geek
Add Copy To / Move To to the Windows Explorer Right Click Menu
A hidden functionality in Windows allows you to right click on a file, select Copy To Folder or Move To Folder, and the move to box will pop up and let you choose a location to either copy or move the file or folder to.
Update: Downloadable version also available.
Here’s the quick registry hack to get this working. As usual, back up your registry just in case. You will want to browse down to this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Once you are at that key, right click and choose the New Key option:
Now you will double-click on the (Default) value and enter the following:
{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Click OK and continue.
If you want to enable Move To, you will repeat the same steps, except creating a new key named Move To, and using this value:
{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Now when you right click on a file or folder, you should see the following options:
Let’s click Copy To Folder just to see what happens….
And that’s it. Useful!
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Comments (70)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 09/25/06
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet……
that works on Vista ( all editions ) RTM, too !
wonderful.
HEY there!!! THANKS A BILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Successfully used this on Windows Vista x64!!!
I really miss the WinXP customizable explorer button toolbar… I used to have ‘copy to’ ‘move to’ ‘folder options’ and ‘properties’ all listed there for my ease of use. One click and I’m on my way. I don’t like Vista’s task-pane substitute (organize, views and burn). It is seriously lacking in operational-lity…
So… THANKS FOR POSTING THIS AGAIN!!!!!
Wow, this really is useful. Thanks a lot!
Should this work on XP? Didn’t for me.
Worked on XP for me
Nice, Worked on XP Pro for me.
Awesome tip! Makes moving files between multiple partitions easier. ^^
Very cool how-to hack. Thanks!
Thanks SO much…needed this a lot!
Thanks for the guide.. it’s very useful to make my work easier …
Is there a way to undo this? When selecting multiple folders and right clicking it brings up a new window and then crashes my Windows Explorer.
p.s. ~ Vadtec, above, is right. It very definitely does precisely that, and reproducibly. I don’t know whether the crash results from the registry fixes, or from Vista’s built-in incompetency. But it certainly does exactly what he describes.
It would be better if you can select the target folder by typing rather than mousing the path.
Installed on XP Pro but now when I select Play All on the Explorer left pane I get the Copy to selection window and then the Move to window. If I cancel both of those, it plays OK.
Anybody have a fix for this??
This works great, but I found a bug with it! If you
– click START > Programs then
– right click any group like Accessories
– choose Explore from the shortcut (context) menu
you get the Copy and Move dialog boxes. Only after choosing Canel to each do you then get the Explorer window you chose.
Anyone of you Geeks know how to keep this Move To and Copy To and not having this bug?? TIA, ya’ll the best!
Having the exact same problem with Explore forcing open the Copy and Move To dialog boxes.
Hi. It’s a very useful Tip. Thanks a Lot………….
I want to know how I can make windows Vista STOP merging folder coltents when I am moving them to a directory that already contains a folder with the same name. Windows Vista (the most horrible OS ever) does not understand (the programmers were stupid or what?) that when you want to move a folder you DO want to get rid of the old one, and keep the new one only – the way it was setup by THE USER, not by the stupid OS. This stupid OS merges the folder contents instead. All the files in become useless if they are dependent on others that were not “moved” along.
I could copy/move files in DOS in the 1970s. I could also do it with Windows 3.0 — and now it’s finally back with Vista! I appreciate this hack very much. Thank you!
This is a great addition, really handy. Only trouble i’ve had with it is that now when you right-click a folder in the start menu and click explore, it at first tries to load ‘copy to’, then ‘move to’, then goes to explore folder once you’ve cancelled the first two screens.
It’s great option, but I have one request. Is it posiible to see, favorite folders when use “copy to, or “move to”?
…like “send to”.
Hello Geek,
Very useful website !! Useful tips and how to’s
Keep up the Good work !
Mutahir
Cheers mate! I had this option some time ago, but I had no idea how to enable this again. Great, sipmle tutorial. thx again.
Its very helpful… it works on my vista ultimate… thanks boss..
One more to your glorious path. Keep it up. Thanks a lot, it worked in my XP Pro desk top and now I will try it in my other new Vista Bus. lap top. Thanks again.
hi………nice but every where i am getting this one only, is there any way to set make this work for a predefined folder, say i have folder named “abc” in c:\abc, like we have options move to or copy to abc
All well and good….EXCEPT when in WinExplorer, I select multiple files to open at once, I get the dialog box asking me where I want to MOVE the files to. No joke. If I hit cancel, another dialog box opens and thus a continuous loop.
I’ve discovered a bug in this ointment!
Now, I have to figure out how to undo this Registry ‘enhancement’. Any tips, please email me. Thank you!
@Sonya
Click on the link above for the downloadable version, and then use the uninstall file provided.
Otherwise you could simply delete the registry keys that you created.
For #1 FAN…
If you put the Move To and Copy To keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers it eliminates the move and copy dialogs when Exploring from the start menu
The drawback is Move To and Copy To then only work for files, not folders
Customizable MOVE TO option.
I would like to have the “move to” folder act as the original “send to” folder, where i can edit the list of folders that are MOVED TO has inside of it.
Insted of having to having to re-browse/ navigate through my computer each time i want to move a file, i want severl folders to be added to the move to option.
Best regards
The automated reg entries worked great! Thanks for helping my inlaws switch to Vista!
Wah Kya baat Hai!
Nice Thing added to my knowledge. Keep it up
I have used this to find and delete the ‘copy to’ & ‘move to’ keys. There is an option somewhere in windows to do this manually or maybe I originally used something like the tweaks in regseeker. I don’t really remember how I did it. All I do know is it sounded like a good idea.
I have a habit of right-clicking on folders and then I go to ‘explore’ in the drop down menu, to open up windows explorer. After I enabled this feature the ‘move to’ window would automatically pop up twice before it actually opened up the path in windows explorer. This was real annoying obviously. Thanks for the reverse work around an reminding me what I did wrong.
Now how can I rename ‘explore’ in the drop down box to ‘hack’?
Installed on XP Home but now when I select Play All on My Music left pane I get the Copy to selection window and then the Move to window. If I cancel both of those, it plays OK.
Anybody have a fix for this??
thanks youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…been looking for this to add in my xp context menu
great help from you.How to know Registry values like for send to it is {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13} . is it os defined or we can create some ?
Neat hack…loved it every bit..
Oh my god ! I was looking for ages how to delete those 2 keys which I really don’t need… LOL
Nice – works on 32-bit XP.
Question: Instead of opening a window, is there a way to set it like the Send To menu, where it then provides a small number of pre-selected locations? E.g.: I’d like to routinely use this to move files from a browser specified Download folder to a user-defined Export folder.
Thanks so much bro this is super trick!!!!!
Works on Windows 7 RC x64 also!
I did this fine on my laptop but how do I get to the registry to begin with?
Thanku very much, u r the life saver. Thank you for your work.
Hello!
I bought a lab top from the pond shop, as is, and I am not able to returned it back,I tried to log in on the user, they don’t have the user past word,how can I restore the past work I been told to press F12, but dosed work, so can you please help me what should I do so I can jog in on the lab top?
Thank you
sorry
I mean Log in
I am looking for the “Send to” to function like the old power toys.. where I can Browse for any folder to send to. can you help?
THANKS
Sorry forgot to mention I am using Vista 64 Bit.
Thanks for this useful hack. The step is missing whereby the new Windows Registry key ‘CopyTo’ is actually named. Note that its name should be ‘CopyTo’, not ‘Copy To’ with a space.
The instruction to create a key for the “Move To” folder is of course included, but name the key ‘MoveTo’ (without a space) as it appears Windows registry key names don’t have spaces.
Awesome~!
Thanks!!
Thanks for the very helpful tip! Really appreciate it.
Thanks A Lot!
Worked just fine with Win 7 64 bit.
it was a great trick…… thx a lot!!! :D
Thankssssssssssss!
Thanks a lot for this! I always hated having to go to the Edit menu to select the Move To function. It was only today that it occurred to me that there might be a way to include it in the right-click menu. xD
HEY – GUYS, DOLLS AND GEEKS – IS THERE ANY SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OUTLINED HERE THAT IS CAUSED BY THIS OTHERWISE EXCELLENT HACK? FOR EXAMPLE, IF I GO TO EXPLORER, SELECT A BUNCH OF DOCUMENTS AND HIT “OPEN”, THEN, INSTEAD OF OPENING THOSE DOCS IN THEIR NATIVE APPLICATION, THE COMPUTER SHOWS ME TWO WINDOWS FOR EACH DOCUMENT IN SEQUENCE – MOVE TO WHERE? AND THEN WHEN I CANCEL, COPY TO WHERE? AND THEN WHEN I CANCEL THE DOC FINALLY OPENS IN THE NATIVE APPLICATION. DANGEROUS BECUASE I COULD END UP MOVING DOCS ALL OVER THE PLACE – THEY MIGHT EVEN END UP IN NEW JERSEY.
SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION? COME ON, STOP BEING GRETA GARBO AND LET US KNOW. YOU’RE OUR BEST FRIEND BUT YOU’RE DRIVING US NUTS.
i have winxppro sp3 with 2GB RAM on a Dell Optiplex 755 with a two-brain intel processor. two brains so it can give me two different answers for every question.
I downloaded the reg file and put it on my desktop. When I right clicked on it, there was no merge in the context menu. At the top was READ. Why didnt it work and how can I fix it.
Thanx! it was very useful for me. I appreciate your effort. :)
Hey…….! Thanks for your valuable information. Keep it up.
wow..what an info…you rocked thanks
I hated the absence of move to/copy to in Windows 7, so employed your tweak and it worked great, but renaming folders became buggy and I often get a message asking to abort — then the libraries browser shuts down to restart. Any experience with this?
Folks, this hack causes a lot of problem as mentioned by the others above. For my case, selecting multiple files and trying to add them to a VLC playlist would cause the Move To & Copy To dialogue boxes to repeatedly popup. Therefore, I’ve just deleted the keys mentioned above, and things got back to normal. My suggestion is, don’t bother with this Move To/Copy To hack, it’s just not worth it.
successfully worked in windows 7 x86
Got this working great in Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
Did this on XP Pro and everytime i want to print multipule files from Windows Explorer I get the Move / Copy Dialogue- Hence I have deleted this Key
You can also open Windows Explorer, point to Layout on the Organize menu, and then enable Navigation Pane. That way, you can copy or move files to any folder into the navigation pane from which folder you are working in without using the “Copy to folder / Move to folder” registry hack.
Alternatively, if you are using Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, and ME, you can point to Programs on the Start menu, and then click Windows Explorer. The Folders pane to the left will be open, so you can copy or move files that way.
Second alternative thing: If you are using Windows XP, click the Folders button on the toolbar, or press WINDOWS LOGO+E to quickly open the Folders pane in Windows Explorer.
Third alternative thing: If you are using Windows 7, you can open two folders, and then snap one window to the left, and then the other to the right. You can copy or move files that way.
BTW, if you point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Customize, you can add the Copy To and Move To buttons – the dialog boxes will open if you click any of them. This is effective in Windows XP, but not sure on Windows 2000 or ME, though…
Give these a try!
Worked on my XP, thanks!
Thanks a lot. Very useful.
If u want to remove this hust delete the values