RichCopy, the ultimate File Copying Tool
I am an old school guy who simply uses Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V to perform a copy task almost for entire my life. I was tempted to use RoboCopy utility for many times but never felt that need until recently in a case in which I need to move hundreds of thousands files off to an external storage. I was just so frustrated that I finally wanted to give RoboCopy a taste. But somehow this RichCopy tool came to me instead. It was awesome.
The tool was developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep the pace with evolving needs. It was kept for internal use inside Microsoft for the longest time and was just released to public no long ago. The tool was very simple and only does one thing, copying files, and does it very well. It solves the most common file copying problems as well as all kinds of needs that are required from a copy task. For example,
- Copying thousands of files across a slow connection isn’t an issue anymore.
- No need to worry any glitches that would interrupt a copy process. If it happens, fine, RichCopy will try and pick up wherever it was left off. No more darn evil “copy error” popups.
- Preserve the particular file attributes, such as Modified date, security settings, etc.
- Filtering the files based on the filename or extension, meaning I can copy *.doc files from all folder locations I picked to wherever I want in just one shot.
And you can have all these options set up in one Window.
The most striking thing I found from my first run is.
What you’ll find most striking the first time you take RichCopy out for a spin is that it’s a multithreaded copying tool. That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over.
Note that RichCopy tool is provided as-is, and you will not get support from Microsoft. But that shouldn’t stop you from using it extensively. It’s an ultimate file copying tool I highly recommended.
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Hi Kent,
I don’t seem to get RichCopy to preserve the date/time stamps during a copy.
Can you give me a sample “Copy Option” so I can get started to enjoy all these
nice features from MS?
Please reply to my email address if possible. Thank you in advance.
The timestamps associated with the files still remain the same in the copy versions. However, it doesn’t keep at the folder level. I guess that is because RichCopy creates the folder if the folder is not existed in the destination location rather than copy them.
Cheers, Kent
I need the Directory date and timestamps copied over. I hope future versions have that feature. I am also having trouble copying permissions of the root folder/location.
Thanks