How permissions are handled when you copy and move files and folders
This article describes how Windows Explorer handles file and folder permissions in different situations.
Original product version: В Windows 10 — all editions, Windows Server 2012 R2
Original KB number: В 310316
Summary
In Microsoft Windows 2000, in Windows Server 2003, and in Windows XP, you have the option of using either the FAT32 file system or the NTFS file system. When you use NTFS, you can grant permissions to your folders and files to control access to those objects. When you copy or move a file or folder on an NTFS volume, how Windows Explorer handles the permissions on the object varies, depending on whether the object is copied or moved within the same NTFS volume or to a different volume.
More information
By default, an object inherits permissions from its parent object, either at the time of creation or when it is copied or moved to its parent folder. The only exception to this rule occurs when you move an object to a different folder on the same volume. In this case, the original permissions are retained.
Additionally, note the following rules:
The Everyone group is granted Allow Full Control permissions to the root of each NTFS drive.
Deny permissions always take precedence over Allow permissions.
Explicit permissions take precedence over inherited permissions.
If NTFS permissions conflict, for example, if group and user permissions are contradictory, the most liberal permissions take precedence.
Permissions are cumulative.
To preserve permissions when files and folders are copied or moved, use the Xcopy.exe utility with the /O or the /X switch.
The object’s original permissions will be added to inheritable permissions in the new location.
To add an object’s original permissions to inheritable permissions when you copy or move an object, use the Xcopy.exe utility with the -O and -X switches.
To preserve existing permissions without adding inheritable permissions from the parent folder, use the Robocopy.exe utility, which is available in the Windows 2000 Resource Kit.
You can modify how Windows Explorer handles permissions when objects are copied or moved to another NTFS volume. When you copy or move an object to another volume, the object inherits the permissions of its new folder. However, if you want to modify this behavior to preserve the original permissions, modify the registry as follows.
This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, see How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
Locate and then click the registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer .
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
- Value name: ForceCopyAclwithFile
- Data type: DWORD
- Value data: 1
Exit Registry Editor.
You can modify how Windows Explorer handles permissions when objects are moved in the same NTFS volume. As mentioned, when an object is moved within the same volume, the object preserves its permissions by default. However, if you want to modify this behavior so that the object inherits the permissions from the parent folder, modify the registry as follows:
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
Locate and then click the registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer .
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
- Value name: MoveSecurityAttributes
- Data type: DWORD
- Value data: 0
Exit Registry Editor.
Make sure that the user account that is used to move the object has the Change Permissions permission set. If the permission is not set, grant the Change Permissions permission to the user account.
The MoveSecurityAttributes registry value only applies to Windows XP and to Windows Server 2003. The value does not affect Windows 2000.
How to Add Move To and Copy To in Windows
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
If you are the Windows users, you will find that in the right-click menu of Windows Explorer, we can’t find Copy To and Move To commands. And if you add these commands, you will enjoy faster access to file transfer, furthermore, it can save a lot of time. This article will discuss how to do it in your Windows File Explorer right click context menu.
How to add Move To in right click context menu:
Step 1: Type “Regedit” in run to open the Registry Editor and navigate the following path:
Step 2: Right click on “ContextMenuH” and choose New and Key.
Step 3: Name your new key “Move To”, and double click its default settings in the right navigation pane and change its data value to:
Now it will add Move to in the context menu.
How to add Copy To in right click context menu:
Repeat the above steps and name the new key as Copy To and input its value:
After settings, your right click menu will be changed as the following shows:
By adding Copy To and Move To in context menu, you can easily move or copy files from one folder to another one. Have a try?
Drag and drop- Move or copy?
To the Microsoft community: 11/19/2013
I have a very good question:, «What Determines the drag and drop to do a copy or a move?» When I want to copy, it moves the file or folder. and it only should copy at all times.
Question #2: » WHY do I have to define the folder to play the MUSIC inside it?» It is not a question as to HOW, because I can do it, but WHY? IF I set the folder to Music it slows down the access to it, it is rediculous to set it when I want to access other items in the same folder and by the PC and the Processor’s speed it is not quick enough! I must then set the folder to «Any File Type» with Windows XP and «General» with Windows 7 to bypass these media searches. Also the same to «Autorun» to any partition! Only one way I can defeat Autorun entirely, is use «Tweak UI» for Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 can turn the Autorun OFF!
To me, this is the biggest bug-a-boo about Windows since Windows 98.
If you drag and drop a file or folder with the left mouse button, then it will move the file/folder if the source and destination folders are on the same Drive letter. It will copy the file/folder if the source and destination folders are on different drive letters.
If you want to make sure that you always copy a file when you drag/drop, then hold the «CTRL» key down while dragging/dropping.
13 people found this reply helpful
Was this reply helpful?
Sorry this didn’t help.
Great! Thanks for your feedback.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback.
To the Microsoft community: 11/19/2013
I have a very good question:, «What Determines the drag and drop to do a copy or a move?» When I want to copy, it moves the file or folder. and it only should copy at all times.
Question #2: » WHY do I have to define the folder to play the MUSIC inside it?» It is not a question as to HOW, because I can do it, but WHY? IF I set the folder to Music it slows down the access to it, it is rediculous to set it when I want to access other items in the same folder and by the PC and the Processor’s speed it is not quick enough! I must then set the folder to «Any File Type» with Windows XP and «General» with Windows 7 to bypass these media searches. Also the same to «Autorun» to any partition! Only one way I can defeat Autorun entirely, is use «Tweak UI» for Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 can turn the Autorun OFF!
To me, this is the biggest bug-a-boo about Windows since Windows 98.
Drag with the left mouse button will only copy a file.
Drag with the right mouse button gives you the option to copy or move it when you let go of the button.
Music is played by the application you’re using. It doesn’t matter where the files are located or what the folder is called.
How to Automatically Move or Copy Files in Windows
Make your life a little easier with this open source tool
I’ve always wished Windows would come with features to automatically organize my files: automatically move or copy files based on the file name, size, extension, etc. Unfortunately, we have to rely on third-party programs to get the job done.
In this article, I’ll walk you through a one of my favorite programs for automatically organizing files. So what are some use cases for a program like this? In my case, I have a lot of home videos that are recorded on my HD video camera in AVCHD format. In order to play the movies on my computer and smartphone, I need it in MP4 format.
Once I convert the videos, I copy them to my NAS and then delete the local copies of the videos. Using an organizing program, once the converted files appear in a specified folder, they are automatically copied to my NAS and then deleted from the local computer. It makes my life easier and works great. So let’s talk about the actual program.
DropIt
DropIt is personally my favorite tool because it has a lot of useful options and really lets you control exactly what files/folders you want to process using their examples or by using regular expressions. If you have a fairly complicated set of rules for organizing files, this program is for you. It’s also open source and comes in a portable version, so you don’t have to install anything on your system if you don’t want to.
Once you install it and run the program, you’ll notice that only a blue block with a white down pointing arrow appears on top of all other windows. That’s pretty much the interface for the program! It’s not exactly as intuitive as I would have liked, but it’s really easy to learn. Firstly, let’s configure it so it’s not in our way all the time.
Right-click on the icon and you’ll see a menu pop up. This is the menu you’ll be using to configure the rules and options for the program. Go ahead and click on Options for now.
The top three items deal with the layout and positioning of the small icon. What I do on my computer is move it to a location with my other desktop icons and then uncheck Show target image always on top and check Lock target image position.
Now the icon just looks like another desktop icon rather than floating all over the desktop on top of my other programs. You can then just drag and drop files/folders onto that icon at any time to manually process files. Later on I’ll show you how to set up monitoring so you never have to manually start a processing job.
Next, let’s understand profiles. If you right-click on the icon, you’ll see an option called Profiles that includes Archiver, Default, Erasor, Extractor, etc. If you pick a different profile other than Default, then when you drop files or folders onto the icon, the current profile rules will apply. For example, if you choose Archiver, you’ll notice the icon changes and if you drop a couple of files onto the icon, it will create a compressed zip file on your desktop!
You can see the rules associated with any profile by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Associations. The list of items in Associations will vary depending on which profile you are currently working in. In our example, we are using the Archiver profile, so we’ll see the Archiver rule.
Double-click on the rule to open it. There are four parts to each rule: the name, the filter or rules, the action and an associated last option that changes depending on which action you pick. Normally, it’s just a destination.
The most important part here is the rules. You can click on the little blue information icon and it will quickly give you some examples of rules for files and rules for folders.
The second button to the right of the blue icon is the filter button. Clicking on that will bring up a list of additional filters you can add on top of any file or folder filters you might have added. So you could have picked all files with a .JPG extension and then set the rule so that it only applies to files that are larger than 2 MB.
The other important part is the Action for the rule. Dropit has a large number of actions, which is why I find it so useful. You can move, copy, compress, extract, rename, delete, split, join, encrypt, decrypt, open with a program, upload, send by mail and lots more. It’s quite comprehensive.
Now that you know how to create rules, go ahead to the Default profile again and then go to Associations. You’ll see there are no rules listed there yet. This is where you should add your own rules. Once you create a rule, you can pass your files through the rules by simply dragging the files or folders from Explorer onto the little icon.
Depending on the settings, a dialog will pop up and stay on the screen that will list out what actions will be taken to the files. To start, you click on the little blue play button. Of course, this is not very automated if you have to drag/drop files and manually start the processing. To fix this, right-click on the icon and go to Options again. This time make sure to uncheck the Show progress window during process box.
Lastly, go to the monitoring tab and check the Enable scan of monitored folders box. Then click the Add button at the bottom and choose the folder you want to monitor. You can also change the time interval for scanning and the minimum size of the files.
Now just sit back, dump some files into your monitored folder and watch how after a few seconds your files will automatically be processed without you having to do anything at all. The program is quite powerful and I’ve really only touched the surface of what you can do with it, but hopefully this gives you enough to feel confident using it. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!
Founder of Online Tech Tips and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem’s Full Bio
