The following tip provides you with information on adding copy to and move to actions to the Windows Explorer context menu on Windows.
Here is an old Windows Explorer tip that I run on every operating system that I install for personal use. If you want to copy or move files in Windows Explorer you usually do the following. You select all the files and folders that you want to move or copy first.
You then need to open the destination in Windows Explorer and either drag and drop the selected files to the new location or use keyboard shortcuts to do so. You may use the cut action alternatively to move files or folders.
All solutions are not comfortable which is why I do apply changes to the Windows Registry to make moving and copying files more comfortable. This is done by adding copy to and move to actions to Windows Explorer. These open a folder browser when run so that you can copy or move files from a single Explorer window and without navigating manually to the destination folder.
All that needs to be done to add the copy to and move to entries to Windows Explorer is to add a new key to the Windows Registry.
To start open the Windows Registry editor by pressing Windows-R, typing regedit and hitting the Enter-key afterwards.
Now locate HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTAllFilesystemObjectsshellexContextMenuHandlers, right-click the key and select New > Key from the context menu.
To add Copy To add this key name:
{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
To add Move To add this key name:
{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
The new entries — Copy To Folder and Move To folder — that you add to the right-click menu of Windows Explorer will become visible immediately in the file manager.
Files and folders can now be copied and moved by right-clicking the selected items and selecting one of options that have been added in the Registry. This will open a folder browser so that the target directory can be selected comfortably without having to open a second Windows Explorer window or moving away from the root folder the files are copied from.
You can use a program to add those entries – and many others – as well if you do not want to manually edit your Registry. One of the applications that you can use for that task is called File Menu Tools. Just run the program and select the Copy To and Move To items to add them to Windows Explorer.