Windows copy command syntax and examples

Using copy command, we can copy files from one directory to another directory. This command is similar to the Linux cp command, but it does not match with the full functionality of cp. Windows copy command can be used to copy files only, we can’t copy directories.

The syntax and usecases of copy command are explained below with examples.

Copy the contents of a file to another file

Example: To copy a file from c:\data\file1.doc to D:\backup\file2.doc

If the destination file already exists you will be prompted for confirmation. To suppress this confirmation you can use /Y switch with copy command. This would be useful if you are executing copy command from a batch file.

If the destination file exists, the above command will overwrite the same without asking the user for confirmation.

Copy file to another directory

When we specify a directory path as the destination, the files will be copied with the same name. We can assign a different name by specifying the new name in the destination path. Example is shown below.

To copy the file 1.doc loated at c:\data\documents to the directory c:\data\newdocs

Copy files with white space in name

If the file name has white space within it, we can wrap up the name in double quotes.
Example: To copy file, my resume.doc to another folder

Copy multiple files

We can’t specify multiple file names in copy command. However, we can use wildcards to identify a group of files and then copy all of them in a single command.
For example, to copy all excel files from current folder to another folder F:\backup

To copy all files in current folder to another folder

Use of environment variables

We can use environment variables in the copy command to specify the path of the folders. Like USERPROFILE, SystemRoot, ProgramFiles, TEMP, WINDIR, APPDATA, HOMEPATH.

For example, to copy a file to a user’s documents folder

The above command copies the file to the My Documents folder of the current logged in user.

You may also want to read

Windows «copy» is funny. Type «copy 1 2» and the file «1» will be copied into a new file «2». Now separate them by a plus sign instead of a space (copy 1+2) and you’ll concatenate 1 and 2 and replace the old file «1» with the result of the concatenation!

Yes, we can concatenate two or more files using copy command. You need to separate the list of files using +. You can redirect the resultant data to a new file also.

The above command will not alter the file 1. It creates a new file 3 with the concatenated data of 1 & 2. If no file name is provided it stores the result in the first file.

My Win7 cannot find a copy command, and when i run xcopy, a window flashes and exits.

I have the same problem. If you solved it, could you please explain how?

If you can not find your copy.exe file, you can download it to your windows directory or C:\ Directory depending the setting on your OS you should also be able to copy and run it from system32 or system folder.

how can i combine 2 .exe files and be able to use both after concatenation

I want to copy 2 different files(.exe,.config) from source to destination server of windows.
can you please help me on this command.

Hello i have a problem with my cmd windows 7.when i try to copy a command. Like help > file.pdf. i mean in extension pdf because i have this problem only with .pdf extension but not with .txt.So whe i execute the command. No problem. Then when i go to open the file.pdf ftom user destination the file.pdf doesn’t open say that is corrupted.please do help me .thanks

i have a file contain many lines as sources and another file has the same numbre of lines as destinations. i want to copy first line as source( c:/test/*.txt) to first line in destination ( d:/test2/), secend line ( c:/test/*.pdf) to second line in destination ( E:/test3/)……

Can I use the DOS/Windows “COPY” command in a BAT file to copy a file or a short string of text to computer memory and then paste (Ctrl +V) that string or file into a document?

Copy only changed files (new & modified) in Windows 10

How to Copy Only New Files and Changed Files to my backup USB to do a backup.

—- You could do this on Old DOS and Window before they fixed it in Windows 10 —

Her is the Situation:/Problem

I drag a bunch of folders to the destination (my (USB backup drive) and copying begins

Then I get a window that says destination has files with the same name and asks if :

1. I want to replace the files
2. Skip these files
3 let me decide what to do with each individual file

copy «»»»changed»»»» files only — Remember that?

Window 10, in it’s wisdom, no longer seems to have this option — even though the files still have dates and sizes.

I used to be able to say copy ( or move) changed files only. bing, bang, bata boom and it’s done.

Because of this I Must either:

1 not save the updated files- even though they have been updated based on the new file date
2 replace all of the files which is waste of time and resources (there are 3307 files that I copy)
or decide on each file what I want to do on 3307 files also a major waste of my time. That would take me days.

On previous Windows and DOS you could copy changed files only.

——Where is that option in windows 10 operating system? ———

I can buy a simply program like copywiz to do that for $29 dollars or use the dos Xcopy at the command prompt but really? This is the best the new wonderful window 10 can do? Search hardly works and now the Copy command is pathetic too?

Does anyone have any idea what to do besides DOS or paid copy programs?

Also, how much longer will windows 7 be supported by Microsoft.

I ask because MS support is so willing to help that their people say go back to 7. I assume they have no interest in fixing this well know issue. That was a good program and I am considering going back. until windows 10 beta testing is done using all of us as guinea pigs.

Replies (9) 

Select Let me decide for each file and then in the File Conflict dialog choose the option to Skip N files with the same date and size:

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Thank you for this response. It’s an interesting workaround and I will naturally take it under consideration even though it’s a workaround that doesn’t exactly fit my needs as a user and all of my circumstances.

I know we can’t have everything of course and if Microsoft wants to eliminate this method of copying, that has worked well all this time, they can do so. However, what I am still looking for is an answer to this question —

How to make windows 10 work like older versions of windows and even as old as DOS 3 plus. by copying only changed files rather then wasting either my time making individual choices on 3000 plus files or wasting my resources copying all of the 3000 plus files. if having to use yet another work around to do what is so simple to in other older versions of window.s. I can use the proper DOS Xcopy commands at the command promt of course, but this is supposed to be the newest and the best so why would I use DOS to get the job done or have to use a workaround?

I only drive my 1929 ford for show not because I expect it to go 120 MPH in 5 seconds flat.

I wold like the system to copy only changed files as an option when I copy or move a file to another drive or to my backup USB drive

Do you by chance know how to make «that» work?

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Hi RoberttWin and thank you for your quick response to this.

Unfortunately, this does no solve the problem because my version of window 10 appear to be different from yours.

Select Let me decide for each file and then in the File Conflict dialog choose the option to Skip N files with the same date and size:

Let me decide I don’t get that option: Hers is what I show.

Notice that my choice is to skip 0 files with same date and size out of ( in this case) 720 files although it shows 720 files with the same date and size.

I don’t know why that is. Do you know how to make it read the correct number?

Also this give me a choice of which to keep if I copy the files.

Is it not true that If I am making a —COPY — elsewhere that I want to keep the original files? If however I din’t want the originals to stay in place that I would —MOVE — the files. Have he definitions of these words changed or is Microsoft now using offshore programmers who don’t really understand the US language that well.

I want to keep both with the — Same — Name. If I want to copy why would they even ask?

If I had the skip option on my windows 10 version your solution might work though — unless it renames the files which I don’t want.

Thanks — I hopefully await your reply

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Well I found other posts which I missed before. Here seems to be the problem as of Aug 31 2015 but not the answer.

No it doesn’t work according to MS — and it has not been fixed in over one year. see below.

Windows 10 — Copy and paste functionality in file explorer

Each day, I copy a number of files from my office computer to my home computer as a back up. As I update these files in my office computer, I copy and replace the older versions on my computer at home.

When I did copy and replace in Windows 7, for each file name that was already existing in my home computer, Windows 7 would give me a message for copy and replace giving the date of file modified and label it as Newer. For all «newer» files, I would them accept the copy and replace function.

I found this functionality in Windows 7 extremely useful since it would protect me from accidental replacement of a newer version with an older version. Just by checking the «Newer» word in the prompt, I would click yes.

This functionality is missing in Windows 10. It only provides an option where I have to manually compare and determine the newer version, and I find this loss of functionality very irritating (it was so much easier when Windows 7 did the compare and labelled newer files). I can’t understand why Microsoft removed this functionality.

I called Microsoft support but the only solution they gave me is to go back to Windows 7 (a suggestion that I found to be extreme).

Am I the only one missing this functionality? Is there a work-around for this?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I am missing this functionality — I use it everyday.

Is there any hope that Microsoft will add this functionality to Windows 10 in the future?

Thank you very much.

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Notice that my choice is to skip 0 files with same date and size out of ( in this case) 720 files although it shows 720 files with the same date and size.

1. I see 760 conflicting files. Where are you getting the 720 number from?

2. You’re wrong, the two sets of files don’t have the same date and size. The files in K: are all newer than those in F:, as shown clearly by the fact that their dates are in bold text. So even if the sizes match (since neither size text is in bold), the dates don’t and so the files are not necessarily the same.

Is it not true that If I am making a —COPY — elsewhere that I want to keep the original files? If however I din’t want the originals to stay in place that I would —MOVE — the files.

Who says the files in the original location i.e. F: won’t be kept? The dialog is clearly asking whether in the target folder i.e. K:, you want to keep copies of the original set of files from F:, or you want to retain the new files already in K:.

Have he definitions of these words changed or is Microsoft now using offshore programmers who don’t really understand the US language that well.

No offence, but just because you didn’t understand the dialog doesn’t mean others don’t. I’ve been around the world enough to have met lots of foreigners who could speak English better and write both English and code better than their counterparts here. Personally, when I’m faced with genuine OS issues I couldn’t care less about the background of the developers. They’re MS employees, that’s all I know, and so I want them to fix their damn mistakes wherever they are, be it America, China, Russia or Addis Ababa.

I want to keep both with the — Same — Name.

You can’t keep both sets of files with the same name in the same folder. This has never been possible. All you can decide to do with the dialog above is, as I’ve already said, choose to keep the newer files in K: or overwrite them with the older ones from F: (or keep both versions in K: with the ones from F: being automatically renamed). The original files in F: will of course be left untouched since you’re copying and not moving, exactly as you want.

If I want to copy why would they even ask?

They’re asking because the file names are conflicting. Couldn’t be simpler. Now you decide which version of the files you want ending up in K:.

With a multi-file copy/move Win10 doesn’t prompt you for each file whether it is newer or older than the one with the same name in the target folder. Instead it shows you a dialog where it highlights which file in each pair is newer, and which file in each pair is bigger. If you select both of a pair then it will rename the file being copied so both versions can co-exist in the target folder.

Now is the current implementation perfect? Of course not. For example see the following case:

As you can see the Source versions of Files 1 & 3 are newer, but the Target versions of Files 2 & 4 are newer. Now what if one wants to end up with only the newer files in the Target folder (i.e. copy Files 1 & 3 from Source but leave Files 2 & 4 untouched in the Target)? Currently there’s only a Select All checkbox for each column, so one would have to manually select Files 1 & 3 from the first column and Files 2 & 4 from the second. This is obviously impossible when one has hundreds of files in each column to select.

Instead if they had options like i) Select only the newer files, ii) Select only the older files, iii) Select only the smaller files and iv) Select only the bigger files, then IMO the dialog would be far more useful.

Edit: Here are the XP and Win7 file conflict dialogs:

Where’s the «copy «»»»changed»»»» files only» option you were talking about?