Is there an easy way to copy a file or folder path in Vista?
Brought Back Up Top By Popular Demand…
Have you ever wanted to copy the path of a file located deep in your hard drive’s under belly (that you call a hard drive structure)? We are pretty sure you have one time or another, seeming that you are here at AskTheAdmin.com reading this article…
We previously covered how to copy a full error message to the clipboard to be googled here. That made your life easier, Right? So here is another goodie for you guys and girls running Vista.
Their are lots of reasons you could have wanted to copy that path. Looking to send the path on to share a folder or file, need to pop the full path into another application or simply for documentation purposes. No matter what you tried to use it for you know its a pain in the ass to:
- Launch Explorer
- Navigate to the directory
- Then to the file
- Select the contents of the address bar
- Copy the path
- Paste it in Notepad
- Then add the filename to the end of the path.
Now that’s just too many steps for something that should be simple.
Fortunately, the boys in Redmond stepped up with Windows Vista. You no longer have to jump through hoops just to copy the path to that file. [TechRepublic]
When you do this, the path to the file or folder you selected is copied to the Windows Clipboard. Then you can simply paste it anywhere your copy/pasting heart desires…


October 16, 2007 - 5:36 pm
I couldn’t resist :D
Examples from TotalCommander (implemented years ago):
cm_CopyNamesToClip; Copy filenames to clipboard
cm_CopyFullNamesToClip; Copy names with full path
cm_CopyNetNamesToClip; Copy names with UNC path
cm_CopySrcPathToClip; Copy source path to clipboard
cm_CopyTrgPathToClip; Copy target path to clipboard
cm_CopyFileDetailsToClip; Copy all shown columns
cm_CopyFpFileDetailsToClip; Copy all columns, with full path
cm_CopyNetFileDetailsToClip; Copy all columns, with UNC path
With the possibility to assign custom shortcuts for any of those commands…
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October 17, 2007 - 2:47 am
I do not have Vista, so may I ask: what difference is there if you alternate-clicked the file without holding [shift]?
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October 17, 2007 - 3:07 am
SHIFT+right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands
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October 30, 2007 - 9:48 pm
Thanks. I had been pressing the alt key to get the old address bar to come up showing the entire path. This is easier because I don’t have to select the path and then copy.
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March 3, 2008 - 7:56 am
that is a good one!
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February 1, 2009 - 9:03 pm
Their are lots of reasons you could have wanted to copy that path. Looking to send the path on to share a folder or file, need to pop the full path into another application or simply for documentation purposes. No matter what you tried to use it for you know its a pain in the ass to:
1. Launch explore
2. Then to the file
3. Paste it in Notepad
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