Move your files faster in Windows

Launch a web browser and click here to go to Microsoft's Technet download page. When the page appears, click the HoffmanUtilitySpotlight 2009_04.exe link – just under the headline of the page. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and then choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder.

Now locate and double-click the downloaded filed. If any security warnings are displayed, click Run to move on. Windows asks to where the compressed file should be extracted – select the Desktop from the list and click OK. Now double-click the new folder on the Windows Desktop to open it and then double-click the Setup icon within. Follow the setup wizard’s prompts, accepting the defaults and the licence agreement and at the end, click Close to finish. Click the Start button and point to All Programs followed by Microsoft Rich Tools then click Richcopy.

We’re going to demonstrate Richcopy’s basic features by copying a load of files from one folder to another. In preparation, we’ve already created an empty folder on the Windows Desktop, called Target. To select a folder to copy from, first click the Source button. Next, navigate to where the folder is stored on your hard disk and click to place a tick in the box next to it: more than one folder can be selected at a time, if needed. Click OK.

Next, click the Destination button and choose the destination folder for the files. In this example we’re going to select the Target folder on the Windows Desktop. Click OK when done and then, back at the main screen, click the Start button in the toolbar to begin copying the files: instead of copying files one at a time, sequentially, Richcopy copies several at a time. If you need to interrupt the process for any reason – perhaps the PC is running slowly as a result, and you need a quick speed boost – click the triangular Pause button and then resume later.

Richcopy has a few settings worth exploring. Click the Option button on the main screen. Instead of using the Default profile, let’s create a new one so we can try some different settings. Click the New button and then type in a name that describes what you want to do – ours is called ‘Moving CA files’. Then, find the Method section in the main settings panel and click to tick the Move box. While here, find the Thread number section and change the Directory copy setting from 3 to 10. Then click OK to continue.

Back at the main screen, set the Source and Destination folders (see Steps 3 and 4), open the dropdown menu next to Copy Options and choose the profile just created. Click the Start button. This time Richcopy will move the selected files and folders (rather than copying them as before) and it will also move them 10 files at a time, rather than the previous – default – setting of three. This just scratches the surface of what Richcopy can do, but it will get you started.