Add Copy To and Move To to the right-click menu in Windows

The Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options found in Explorer menu bar or ribbon helps you move or copy a file or folder easily to a different location. This functionality can also be added to the right-click menu.

Add Copy To and Move To options to the context menu

1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER
2. Go to the following branch in the Registry Editor.

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Allfilesystemobjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

3. From the Edit menu, create a new key named Copy To.
4. With Copy To selected, double-click (default) value on the right, and set its data to:

   {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

5. Similarly, create a new key named Move To, in this branch:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Allfilesystemobjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

6. With Move To selected, double-click (default) and set its data to:

   {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

7. Exit the Registry Editor.

via Command-line

To do this using command-line, open an admin Command Prompt window and type:

reg add "HKCR\Allfilesystemobjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To" /ve /d "{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}" /t REG_SZ

reg add "HKCR\Allfilesystemobjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To" /ve /d "{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}" /t REG_SZ

This adds Copy To Folder and Move To Folder entries to the context menu for all files and directories. The above registry edit works in all versions of Windows, including Windows 10.

Additional information

Although the options work fine when added to the context menu in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, you’ll note a side-effect in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The problem is that when opening multiple files from Windows Explorer, you’ll see the Copy To or the Move To dialog continuously popping up unnecessarily. As Raymond Chen notes in his blog:

The “Copy to Folder” and “Move to Folder” options weren’t designed to be on the context menu. They were only meant to be placed in Explorer’s toolbar.

So far as I tested, this problem does not occur in Windows Vista/7/8/10.