Windows Tip: Simulate "No to All" in file copy dialog

Posted Apr 11th 2008 5:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Windows, How-Tos

When you try to copy a group of files from one folder to another, Windows will bring up a handy little window if it notices files in the target directory with the same name as files from the source directory. You can manually choose which files to overwrite or leave be one by one. Or you can click "Yes to All" to effectively overwrite every file with a duplicate name in the target directory.

But what if you want to click "No to All?" There's no button for you, but that doesn't mean Windows won't let you skip all the duplicate files. All you have to do is hold down the Shift key and click No. Now Windows will skip all files with duplicate names and copy the rest of your files to the new directory, thus saving you a lot of time, heartache, and repetitive finger motions.

[via Online Tech Tips and Tech Xpress]

Tags: confirm-file-replace, copy, no-to-all, yes-to-all

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

4-11-2008 @ 5:33PM

soniiic said...

Thank you! this has been a certain annoyance of mine and i'm glad to have finally found an answer!

4-11-2008 @ 5:47PM

roycifer said...

nice! but i wish i had this tip 8 years ago.

4-15-2008 @ 11:18AM

Zelidar said...

Same here. Better not try counting the hours I have lost all these years doing those painful manual resyncs.

I'd be better off waiting for downloadsquad coming online on a Mac or Linux box before beginning to use Windows :-).

All this frustration...

4-11-2008 @ 8:45PM

BuntyAurBabli said...

Bow to you :)

I am in the process of backing up from multiple computers to an external hard drive and it was annoying to say no everytime.

This is the most helpful tip I have received in recent times.

Thanks.

5-04-2008 @ 12:09AM

Desi_D said...

Is this Bunty/Babli I know? From Singriwala?

4-11-2008 @ 8:46PM

Rick Blaiklock said...

Check out Teracopy - http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

4-12-2008 @ 7:41AM

edward said...

SWEET!!! This is almost as good as finding out about ctrl+direction for text editing.

4-12-2008 @ 7:47AM

Gustavo Leig said...

Oh MAN, this is OLD NEWS! I know this since Windows 98!!!

hahahha

but usefull

4-12-2008 @ 7:23PM

Maxxum is a spammer said...

Well, You should have let us know 10 years ago.

4-12-2008 @ 7:23PM

JV said...

Useful tip, thanks!

4-12-2008 @ 7:24PM

cloud9ine said...

what roycifer said!

4-12-2008 @ 7:24PM

Veeraraghavan said...

Great tip....lookin for dis for a long time....thanks a lot...

4-12-2008 @ 7:25PM

Bull3t said...

Why the hell didn't they add the button that says: "No to All" instead of leaving us to find out on our own that we have to hold shift and click no. I mean, it makes it look bad if nothing else... Damn, you can see why people hate Microsoft, they leave out things like this and expect you to find it, or search the internet for it. Nice one.

4-12-2008 @ 7:26PM

ModusOperandi said...

Um, they did add it:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1079/movefilesg4.png

4-13-2008 @ 4:54PM

keeves said...

go Vista! it's teaks like that why i wouldn't want to go back to XP

4-12-2008 @ 7:25PM

lucca said...

ISN'T NO TO ALL JUST CANCEL??
JUST CLICK CANCEL

4-12-2008 @ 7:26PM

Diabolic Preacher said...

a much smarter option these days is to use sync software like grsync, toucan or synctoy (besides other paid options). they let you spend only that much time and disk reads and writes required to copy over only the changed files. i feel this is great advantage for short lifespan devices like thumb drives.

i use toucan on windows and grsync on linux. you would still need the above tip if you were doing a cut n paste, but from experience its been found to be more reliable to copy and then delete the source if you no longer need it.

4-12-2008 @ 7:26PM

Michael Graham said...

Downloaded and installed and like the program. Now is there a program around that lets you organize you context menus?

4-12-2008 @ 7:41PM

DrBen said...

maybe they should just have the button there ?!

4-13-2008 @ 1:02AM

Bryce said...

I haven't used Windows lately, but IIRC it works for "Yes" as well.

Its a good tip for those who don't know, but one of those "Duh" things for those who do, haha.

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