When it comes to copying or moving files, Windows Explorer’s capabilities are very limited. This also applies to Vista. That’s why, it is necessary to use xcopy or another command line tool sometimes. Copy Handler is a free Open Source tool with a graphical user interface that offers features even sophisticated command line tools lack.

Have you ever seen a copying process being interrupted due to the inability of Windows Explorer to access certain files that were being used by another application at that time? Usually, this means that you have to start copying the files again after you fix the problem. This can be quite annoying, when you need to copy a huge directory structure. Copy Handler is the solution to this shortcoming of Windows Explorer, and not only for this one.

Once you start Copy Handler, you’ll only see its icon in the taskbar’s notification area. Right clicking on it will open a context menu with several options. The first thing, you should do, is to register the shell extension dll. This will allow you to use Copy Handler within Windows Explorer. To copy or move files using Copy Handler, you can use the copy and paste function of Windows Explorer. You only have to select (CH) Paste or (CH) Paste special from the context menu to start the copying process.

If you choose (CH) Paste special, Copy Handler will open its configuration menu. There you can configure several copying/moving parameters (see screenshot). One parameter, I find quite useful, is Copy Handler’s filter function. This filter allows you to exclude files by certain criteria like the file extension, creation date, size etc.

After starting the copy process the Copy Handler offers some options in its status window. Here you can pause the process or resume it if it was cancelled. In my test, I disconnected a network share while Copy Handler was still copying files. It stopped the copying process immediately. When I connected the share again, Copy Handler automatically resumed the copying process after a few seconds.

I tested Copy Handler under Windows XP/2003/Vista and it worked smoothly. It has many more features and settings. I think this is a must-have tool for any sysop.