The most common way to move files or folders is by dragging them from one window to another. There are, however, many other ways to move files and folders in Windows and since some of them can be much more comfortable in certain circumstances, it is important to know how to use them. There are well 6 ways to move files on Windows 10, using windows, using the keyboard, via command prompt, and with the help of the context menu. It is also important to know the difference between copying, moving, and creating a link of files and folders.Ways to Move Files on Windows
1) Drag And Drop
To move a file from one folder to another, open the two folders in two different windows and then drag the file from one position to another, clicking and holding with the left mouse button. To open the folder window twice in Windows, the quickest way is via key combination Windows logo + E.
Moving files by dragging can also be done for a group of files: if you select multiple files, you can then press on one of them to drag them all together.
Be careful though, depending on the configuration, dragging can move the file or copy it. As written in a previous article, you can also choose which action to perform by dragging, whether to move or copy.
2) Right button menu – Cut / Paste
To move a file without having to open multiple windows close to each other, you can simply press on it with the right button and select the option Cut it. Then open the destination folder, right-click on the white space and choose Paste.
The difference between Copy and Cut it’s the following: Copy move the file but leaving a copy of it in the source folder; Cut it instead it copies the file to the new destination, deleting it from where it was before.
Also note that if the file is copied, the two files, the original and the copied one, are not synchronized; this means that the changes made to one of them will not be found in the copy. If you want to copy files in multiple positions so that they remain synchronized and any changes are applied in all the positions in which that file is located, you can create a link or, even better, a symbolic link.
3) Cut and paste from the menu
In case you want to move multiple files in a folder, the drag becomes inconvenient, so it would be better to select them and then use the menu bar at the top. When you select one or more files and folders, you will notice, at the top, that the button appears on the menu bar Cut it. Then press Cut, then open the destination folder and press, always in the menu at the top, the key Paste to move them.
4) Add the Move option to the top menu
If you select a file, in the top menu you can press the Move to instead of a Cut button, and then quickly choose the folder in which to move it.
In addition, you can also use the right-click menu: normally, if you right-click on a file or folder, there is no option Move. If you want to add this quick shortcut to move files, you can install a program to add functions to the contextual menu of Windows.
NOTE: Through some external programs it is also possible to move files automatically to different folders by extension, name or type
5) Move files from the command prompt
In some cases, the command prompt may be the only tool you can use to move or copy files. For example, if the PC does not load Windows, you can still use the recovery console to start the PC from a command prompt.
From the command prompt, use the command move.
For example, to move a file from the downloads folder to the Documents folder, you can use this command:
move “C: Users pomhey Downloads / How2do.doc” “C: Users pomhe Documents”
6) Move files from Powershell
Powershell works similarly to the Command Prompt but has different commands. Taking the example above, the command is:
Move-Item C: Users pomhey Downloads / How2do.doc “” C: Users pomhe Documents “
READ ALSO: Move folders and documents to another disk on Windows 10