How in the Tech

Expanding Windows Explorer right-click menu with “Copy to..” “Move to..”

By Adam Myers ⋅ June 17, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Annoyances, Shortcuts, Windows

Let’s be honest, Windows Explorer is a shining example of many components within Windows by Microsoft – it’s merely good enough to not warrant finding a more functional replacement. While there are many file managers available freely for Windows, most users will just stick to Explorer and all of it’s annoying or featureless glory.

If you are attempting to move or copy a group of files or folders from one location to another you have a few cumbersome and tedious options. You can either drag and drop from one location to another, but the single navigation panel of Explorer severely cripples this approach. Rather, most turn to the traditional select, cut/copy, and paste. This of course forces you to leave your initial folder location and locate the new destination. If you are attempting to organize a folder and it’s contents to multiple different destinations this process gets  very click-heavy as you continually return to the initial folder to select/copy the next batch of files.

It’s actually possible to cut the number of steps necessary in half by adding a few new options to Explorer’s right-click context menu.

Open the Registry Editor through the run dialog with WIN+R and typing regedit.

Traverse down to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.

Right-click on the ContextMenuHandlers folder and choose New->Key.

You should see a new folder created underneath ContextMenuHandlers; these are what control all of the right-click options in Windows Explorer.

• Naming the folder {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13} adds the Move To Folder… option on any file(s) that you’ve right-clicked on.
• Similarly, creating and naming another key or folder {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13} will add Copy To Folder…

Accessing either the Move To or Copy To will initiate an Explorer folder browser dialog where you may choose your desired destination. The registry change takes effect immediately without a reboot and is so useful that I’m a bit surprised Microsoft doesn’t include the options right alongside Send To.