CrazyCopy Quick Start Guide

image.png

CrazyCopy ™

Crazy Fast Copying

Contents

Introduction

CrazyCopy is a Crazy Fast Windows Application for Copying and Moving Folders. Copy times vary but for some benchmarks CrazyCopy can be up to 10x faster than standard Windows folder copying. From the command line it can be up to 3 times faster than Robocopy or Xcopy. See the Performance Reports in the Installation folder, or on the Void-Pointer.com website for benchmark methodology and results, or watch the YouTube videos on Void-Pointer's channel!

Finally you can actually get those SSD speeds that you paid so much money for!

Speed is not the only benefit, however. CrazyCopy can also dynamically retarget links, junctions and shortcuts when necessary to prevent them from becoming broken during a Safe Move or Copy. It offers safer operations by copying and verifying. When Safe Moving a folder CrazyCopy will only remove the original Source Folder after it has copied it, and ensured the new copy contains the same counts of files, folders, symbolic links, hard links, junctions and shortcuts as the Source Folder. This means a Safe Move will not result in a partially moved folder, where some of the folder's contents have been moved, and the rest remain in their original location. With Safe Move, at least one of the two folders will always remain completely intact, irrespective of any errors that stop the operation or even if the user cancels it halfway through.

The Quick Start Guide

It is recommended to read this Quick Start Guide first to learn to copy and move folders as soon as possible. After the basics have been mastered there is a Complete User Manual included that provides more detailed information, including deep dives on relevant Windows behaviour. A link for the Complete User Manual can be found at the end of this Quick Start Guide.

Running CrazyCopy 

CrazyCopy can be used in four distinct ways.

  1. A Full GUI Windows Application - Run from the Windows Start Menu
  2. A Mini GUI Windows Application - Switch to the Mini GUI from the Full GUI Window 
  3. File Explorer Context Menus - Right Click on File Explorer Folder, or Right Click on an Open Folder's Background in Explorer
  4. Headless Mode (No GUI) - Run from the Command line using arguments to configure a Copy or Move operation

Support

There are seven layers of support for CrazyCopy. Use the links at the end of this Quick Start Guide for more help and support

Nomenclature

To make explanations easier to understand, the following phrases are used consistently throughout this guide. There is an important distinction for example between Destination Folder (which is where the entire Source Folder will be Copied or Moved to), and Final Destination Folder (which is the path of the new folder once it has been copied or moved to the Destination Folder). See the table below for examples

Term Definition Example Path
Source Folder  The complete path to the folder that will be copied or moved. D:\Source\level2
Source Folder Name The name of the folder being copied or moved. This will be the folder name created in the Destination Folder

D:\Source\level2 

 

In the above case level2 is the Source Folder Name. 
Source Folder Tree

Everything contained in the Source Folder, including all files, special files, subfolders with their contents (continues recursively).

All contents in

D:\Source\level2
Destination Folder  The Parent Folder of the Source Folder after the Source Folder has been Copied or Moved. 

If the Destination Folder is E:\Dest\Level1

 

then copying or moving the Source Folder D:\Source will create or overwrite

 

E:\Dest\Level1\Source

Final Destination

Folder

 The Source Folder will be copied or moved to the Destination Folder, the Final Destination Path therefore is the Destination Folder withe the Source Folder Name appended to it.

Destination Path is E:\Dest\Level1

 

Source Folder is D:\Source

 

the Final Destination Folder will be:

 

E:\Dest\Level1\Source
Root Folder The top folder of a volume, partition or drive is called the root folder.  If the backslash is left off CrazyCopy will add it.

Example D:\ or d:\ or D: or d:

 

The root folder can be represented by any of the above as CrazyCopy will remap any string that contains only the Drive Current Folder i.e. d: or D: to the drive's root folder 
Current Folder In Windows the current folder of a drive is specified by the volume letter and a colon (without any backslashes). It can be easy to confuse this with a root folder. In CrazyCopy there is no concept of a current folder as it would add too much confusion. If a volume letter and a colon are used anywhere (for example in text boxes, command lines etc.) CrazyCopy will convert them to be the root folder of the specified volume instead of the volume's current folder.

D: = the current folder on Volume D: 

d: = Equivalent of the above D:

 

Both of the above would instantly become D:\ which is the root folder of the volume D

Quick Start Guide

For help on how to use CrazyCopy simply click inside the Mini Log View on CrazyCopy's Main Window (See 1 below) and then press F1. This will open this Quick Start Guide inside the Windows Default Web Browser (see 2 below). The links at the bottom of this guide offer more help, detailed troubleshooting, benchmark timings, and some recommendations for optimizing your system. 

image.png

Using CrazyCopy 

Launch CrazyCopy from the Windows Start Menu. If purchased through the Microsoft Store this is the only way to start CrazyCopy, if purchased outside the store then the installation may also have created a desktop shortcut that can be used. To run directly from the command line see the relevant Command Line section below. CrazyCopy can be started from the Windows File Explorer Folder Context Menu. Right click on the folder that is to be the Source, and again for the folder that will be the Destination.

How does CrazyCopy Work? 

CrazyCopy uses multiple software threads to split a Copy or Move operation into multiple parallel tasks. Each of these tasks focuses on copying or moving a subset of the contents from the Source Folder to the Destination Folder. Use the Threads to Use slidebar on the main Window to set the number of threads that an operation can use. Using multiple threads can help to speed up a Copy or Move operation. But the increase in speed will depend on numerous things such as the number of threads used, the number of files and folders in the Source, the storage types, load processing on the CPU, PCIe/SATA bandwidth etc. 

CrazyCopy supports Moving and Copying Folders. It does not support copying lists of files or providing file/folder filters to specify what is copied or moved. The user selects a folder to copy and then a destination folder to put the copy of the folder inside. Or the user selects a folder to move and a destination folder to move the selected folder to. Therefore it helps when using CrazyCopy if the user thinks in terms of Folders not files. Copy or Move operations operate on a Source Folder. The Source Folder is copied or moved in its entirety to a Destination Folder.

Example:

Source: d:\MySourceFolder
Destination: d:\Backups

The above inputs would result in the following output:

New Final Destination Folder: d:\Backups\MySourceFolder

The Source Folder is MySourceFolder, it is recreated beneath the Destination Folder Backups. All its files and subfolders remain inside the folder MySourceFolder.

NOTE: Folder paths containing spaces specified in the CrazyCopy GUI Application (with Windows) must not be enclosed by double quotes. But folder paths containing spaces specified on the Command Line must be enclosed with double quotes.

Example of Path in the Source Text box in the Windows GUI Application

D:\My Path\My Folder With Spaces\Source

Example of Path in the Source argument from the Command Line Application

CrazyCopyCLI --source "D:\My Path\My Folder With Spaces\Source"

Performing A Copy

For the safest copying keep the Copy Over checkbox (3) unticked. This prevents any accidental overwriting or merging of existing folders. However if a merge or overwrite is required then enable the Copy Over checkbox.

image.png

  1. Select the Source Folder you want to Copy. This can be achieved three different ways.
    1. Click on the three dots at the end of the Source Text Box and browse to the Source Folder
    2. Type the full path location in the Source Text Box
    3. Drag and drop the Source folder onto the Source Text Box (from Windows File Explorer)
  2. Set the Destination path that will be the Parent Folder of the newly copied Source folder. In other words choose where you want to copy the Source Folder to. The same three options as above are available when selecting the Destination Folder.
  3. Tick the Copy Over checkbox if you want to Copy Over an existing Final Destination Folder. Always keep this check box unticked if you never wish to overwrite any existing folders.
  4. Using the Threads To Use slider, set the maximum number of threads the system can use during a Copy operation. Use a low number if the PC is already busy with a high load and you want the Copy to be performed more as a background task. Use more threads to see Crazy Fast Copying! The optimal thread count depends on the Source and Destination storage devices, as well as workloads. If you need to complete a Copy before continuing or don't need to use the PC until the operation is complete then go for it and slide up to Maximum. This will allow the system to achieve the fastest completion times, even if not all the available threads are used.
  5. Click Copy and watch the progress of the Copy operation on the Progress Bar
  6. If the Copy operation fails to start due to an invalid Source or Destination folder, or unsupported contents, then an Error message in the Mini Log View will inform the user what is wrong. A dialog box may also pop up if you have the Dialogs checkbox enabled. The Progress Bar will remain at 0% and stay Green.
  7. As the Copy operation progresses, the Progress Bar will rise. The percentage starts at 0% and will rise up to 100% when the Copy operation is complete. Each percentage on the Progress Bar represents 1% of the Source Files that have been copied from the Source Folder. 
  8. Check the results to make sure the Copy operation was successful. If anything failed to copy during the operation then the Progress Bar will change to Red and a message explaining the failure will be logged in the Mini Log Viewer. A dialog box may also pop up if you have the Dialogs checkbox enabled.
  9. If the operation completes to 100% without any errors, the Progress Bar will remain Green. The system has already verified and checked the contents in the Final Destination Folder contain all the expected Source Folder's contents, so the job was successful.

Only normally accepted characters can be used to specify a path. Also, relative paths are not supported. See the Help pages on Unsupported Operations at the end of this Guide for more information on valid paths.

To Copy Over an existing folder enable the Copy Over option. Copy Over allows an existing Final Destination Folder to either be completely overwritten (if the Source Folder has an identical file structure), or for the Source Folder and Final Destination Folder to be merged (if both folder's file structures are different). During a Merge, matching files will be overwritten, new Source files will be added to the Destination Folder, and existing unique Destination only files will remain in place.

A junction, directory symbolic link and shortcut to a folder can all be Source Folders, and therefore copied. When copied they become a normal folder and their contents are deep copied. The Final Destination Folder therefore will contain a copy of the entire contents of the objects target folder. 

Performing A Move

A Move operation cannot overwrite any existing Final Destination Folders. This means the Final Destination Folder cannot exist when performing a Move. The Source and Destination Folders on the other hand, must exist.

For example, moving the Source Folder: D:\Source

To the Destination Folder: E:\Destination

Would result in a new folder at

E:\Destination\Source

Which would be the new Final Destination Folder. Therefore for the Move operation to be valid, E:\Destination\Source can not exist.

There are two ways to Move a folder Safe Move and OS Move. To start with, use the Safe Move method until you are more familiar with CrazyCopy. The second method of moving a Folder is using the Windows Move Operation which CrazyCopy supports when the Safe Move checkbox is empty. This method only allows a Source Folder to be moved to a Destination that is on the same Volume.

To perform an OS Move uncheck the Safe Move option, or to use CrazyCopy's Safe Move click the Safe Move checkbox so a tick appears in the box. Now click the Move button.

The Safe Move operation performs the following steps

  1. Fast Copy of the Source Folder to the Destination Folder (note it does not move the contents - it copies them)
  2. Structural verification of the new Final Destination Folder's contents (audits the file and folder counts)
  3. If the Final Destination folder is successfully verified then the original Source Folder is removed, completing the Safe Move

If there are any errors during a Move, or if the user Cancels the Move, the original Source Folder will be completely untouched. No files or folders will have been removed until the entire Final Destination Folder has been verified to contain the same number of files and folders as the Source Folder.

image.png

  1. Select the Source Folder you want to Move. This can be achieved three different ways.
    1. Click on the three dots at the end of the Source Text Box and browse to the Source Folder
    2. Type the full path location in the Source Text Box
    3. Drag and drop the Source folder onto the Source Text Box (from Windows File Explorer)
  2. Set the Destination path (2) to where you want to Move the Source Folder. The same three options as above are available for selecting the Destination Folder.
  3. Remember you cannot overwrite an existing Final Destination Folder by moving a Source Folder over an existing folder
  4. Keep the Safe Move (3) option ticked as this type of Move operation can move a folder between different volumes. It also provides full validation before removing the original Source Folder. 
  5. Set the number of threads on the Threads to Use slider (4). Maximize threads for the fastest Move job times!
  6. Click the Move (5) button and watch the Progress Bar (6). Cancel the Move at any time by pressing the Cancel button. No files or folders are really moving with a Safe Move, they are copied. Only when all the Files and Folders are verified in the Final Destination Folder will the Source Folder be removed thus completing the Move operation.
  7. If the Move operation fails to start due to invalid input paths or unsupported contents then a message will inform the user and the operation will not begin. A Dialog may also pop up with a reason for the failure (if you have the Dialogs option enabled). The Progress Bar will remain at 0% and stay Green because the Move operation did not even begin.
  8. When the Move is complete check the Files box and the results in the Mini Log Viewer to make sure everything was moved successfully (6). If any files or folders failed during the Move then the Progress Bar will be Red, and a message telling the user what failed will be posted in the Mini Log Viewer (also the System Log). A Dialog may also pop up with a reason for the failure (but only if you have the Dialogs option enabled).
  9. If the operation completes to 100% without any errors, the Progress Bar will remain Green. The system has already verified and checked the contents in the Final Destination Folder contain all the expected Source Folder's contents, so the job was successful.

NOTE: Folder paths containing spaces specified in the CrazyCopy GUI Application (with Windows) must not be enclosed by double quotes. But folder paths containing spaces specified on the Command Line must be enclosed with double quotes.

A junction, directory symbolic link and shortcut to a folder can all be Source Folders and therefore moved. When moved they become a normal folder, and their contents are deep copied, so the Final Destination Folder will contain the entire contents of the target folder of the object type. 

Dialogs

Enable the Dialogs checkbox to allow CrazyCopy to display messages and interactions via popup dialogs. 

image.png

Progress Bar

image.png

If an operation fails to start due to an invalid folder, unsupported contents or an invalid path, then a message will inform the user and the Copy Or Move operation will not begin. The Progress Bar will therefore remain at 0% and stay Green. This is because a Red Progress Bar is used to tell the user that the operation started, but it did not complete successfully. In essence the Red Progress Bar informs the user that the Final Destination Folder may not contain the full contents of the Source Folder. 

If an operation is running then the Progress Bar shows the status and percentage completed so far of the current operation. If the operation has completed then the Progress Bar will show 100%, and its color will indicate the result of the last operation, either a success or a failure. 

If the Progress Bar is red then the last operation either hit an error during the operation or was cancelled by the user. This means the contents of the Final Destination Folder can not be trusted to contain a full copy of the Source Folder. 

In this situation, 100% on the Progress Bar indicates the operation finished, it does not mean that 100% of the Source Folder was successfully copied or moved!

image.png

Results

Before a Copy or Move operation is marked as Successful there can not have been any errors during the Copy or Move operation. Once an operation completes the Final Destination Folder is analyzed to check that the correct number of files and folders are present. These verification counts are based on the following Source Folder Contents

If a Copy Over is performed and the Final Destination Folder already exists then any files already in the Final Destination Folder must be considered in the validation counts, including

image.png

Therefore the final number of files and folders in the Final Destination folder may be far higher than the Source Folder's. The user does not need to consider all this complexity, as this is all handled by CrazyCopy and its validation process. You can be assured that CrazyCopy takes all this information into account so you don't need to! 

File Validation Counts

In the above example we can see the following counts.

image.png

If the user wishes, they can manually verify these counts. We can only compare CrazyCopy's counts against the Source Folders Explorer Folder Properties (right click on a Folder and select Properties). For a manual comparison of the Links we need to remove all the file types that are excluded by the Explorer Properties. These are excluded from the Folders Properties

The comparison therefore should be between CrazyCopy's Folders to Process (2) and Expected Files (3) above, with Explorer's Folder Properties Contains Folders and Files

image.png

image.png

Cancelling an Operation

image.png

To stop an operation click the Cancel button on the Main View. Cancelling an operation can take a few moments as all the active threads must terminate safely, so please be patient!

Closing CrazyCopy

To close CrazyCopy click on the Close X on the Main Window. If Dialogs is enabled you will be asked if you wish to "Save the current settings" (if the settings have changed since startup). If you don't want these Popup dialogs then disable the Dialogs option.

Note that closing the MiniGUI window with the Windows Close X button switches CrazyCopy back to the Main GUI Window. Simply Close the Main Window to shut CrazyCopy down. 

Log View

As CrazyCopy executes, log messages are written to a System Log that resides in memory. Each log message is prefixed with a timestamp that shows the date and time of the event. To see the System Log, simply click on the VIEW LOG button on the Main Window (see below). 

image.png

The Log View will open, showing the current System Log messages. If the Mini GUI view is opened, the Log View closes, this is to minimise the screen area CrazyCopy is using. So the Log Viewer can not be open when the Mini GUI view is being used.

Default Log Messages

image.png

The above messages are always inserted in the log when the application first starts. 

Log View Options

This section describes the options for working with the Log View window and the current System Log in memory. 

Clear

image.png

The Clear button removes all the current log messages from memory and also clears all the log messages from the Log Viewer. The default messages will be added again, showing when the new log was created etc. The log will be saved before being cleared to ensure no messages are lost.

image.png

Save

image.png

The system log can be manually saved to a file by clicking Save and selecting a destination folder and filename. Note that the log can be saved with either a .txt or .log filename extension. Both file types contain plain text only.

When the Log Saving dialog is opened, the default folder is the CrazyCopy System Log Folder, which is the users Documents folder as described below.

Example System Log Folder:

C:\Users\<username>\Documents\CrazyCopy\Logs

Line Numbers

image.png

This checkbox when ticked, will display Line Numbers for every log entry. The Line Numbers are not saved in any Log files.

Time Reverse

image.png

This reverses the order of the log messages in the Log View. When switching between different orders, the Line Numbers remain associated with the same log messages allowing them to be referenced independently of the display ordering. This button changes its description each time it's clicked, it will also toggle the order of the messages between forwards and reverse.

image.png

Allows the log to be searched for any text entered into the Search box (on the left of the Search button). There are multiple key shortcuts for searching, including F3, Enter, Control F etc. See the keyboard shortcut section below for more details.

Ignore Case

image.png

Used to ignore all case when searching the log. 

Log View Keyboard Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are supported in the Log View. Some navigation shortcuts require focus to be inside the actual Log Text Box, so click inside the Log's text box before using them. 

Key Shortcut Action
Ctrl+F Find - Puts cursor into the Search text box
Enter Find Next
Shift+Enter  Find Previous
F3  Find Next

Shift+F3

 Find Previous
Mouse Wheel Scroll Up and Down
Page Down

Move Down a Screen of Log Messages

Requires Focus in the Log Text Box
Page Up

Move Up a Screen of Log Messages

Requires Focus in the Log Text Box
Ctrl+End

Go to the last Log Message at the Bottom of the view

Requires Focus in the Log Text Box
Ctrl+Home

Go to the first Log Message at the Top of the view

Requires Focus in the Log Text Box

Log File Location

Log files automatically saved by CrazyCopy are stored in the user's Documents folder:

<Path to Users Folder>\Documents\CrazyCopy\Logs\

For Example :

C:\Users\dave\Documents\CrazyCopy\Logs

This ensures the user has read and write permissions. The user can also manually Save a log at any time using a valid filename, to any accessible folder using the Save button.

Mini GUI

The Mini GUI is the smallest and easiest way to run CrazyCopy. It gives the user the ability to Copy Folders into a Destination Folder using just drag and drop. The information visible on the Mini GUI is the Destination path (once it's been set). This is the location where every dropped Source Folder will be copied into.

image.png

To open the Mini GUI View click the Mini GUI button on the Top Right of the Main Window (see below). This switches CrazyCopy to the Mini GUI View (same as above).

image.png

No overwriting or merging of any existing folders can take place from the Mini GUI because Copy Over is not supported, this means the Final Destination Folder can not exist to run a Copy from the Mini GUI. Move is also not supported.

Mini GUI Copy

Set the Destination Folder in the Mini GUI by clicking on the Destination button (1), then navigate to the desired folder (2) that you want all the Source Folders to be copied into. Finally, accept the chosen Destination Folder(3). 

image.png

Once selected, the new Destination Folder will be displayed on the actual Destination Button itself (4) - see below. 

image.png

To switch back to the Main Window at any time, click on the Switch View button (5) on the Mini GUI - see above.

To Copy folders, simply drag and drop each Source Folder from Windows File Explorer straight onto the Mini GUI Window.

Moves are not supported from the Mini GUI View, only Copy can be performed. This means that dragging and dropping inside the Mini GUI View will never move a folder.

Mini GUI View uses these settings that can be modifed from the Main GUI Window:

Therefore to change the Threads to Use or set the Dialogs option, switch back to the Main Window with the Switch View button (see below), and change them from the Main Window. 

image.png

The Copy operation will not start if a valid Destination Folder is not set. There is no control for cancelling a Copy when using the Mini GUI. There is no Progress Bar in this view, so once an operation begins the Destination button Text will show "Copying". Once the operation completes if any error occured then the Mini GUI border will change to Red. 

image.png

Otherwise if the Copy operation was successful the border will remain Green.

image.png

Junctions, directory symbolic links and folder shortcuts are all legitimate Source Folder types. When dragged onto the Mini GUI window they will be copied along with their contents, to the Destination Folder. When they objects are copied they will become normal folders in the Destination Folder. Their contents are also deep copied. This means the Final Destination Folder will contain a copy of the entire target folder of the object type. 

Contextual Help

Help is available on all controls on all windows. Simply click the control or use Tab to cycle focus to the control, and press F1 for context help. Tooltips are also available for every control. To see a tooltip, hover the mouse pointer over a control. Each tooltip displays for around 10 seconds.

Command Line 

You can start CrazyCopy from the command line from Windows Terminal, the Command Prompt or Powershell. Arguments are passed in to CrazyCopy to set the application's various inputs. For example arguments are passed in on the command line to set the Source Folder, Destination Folder, Number of Threads etc.

Valid:

CrazyCopyCLI --destination "d:\My New Folder" - Valid, path has spaces so enclosed in quotes, also backslash used as seperator

PS D:\Projects19> CrazyCopyCLI --destination "d:\My New Folder"

CrazyCopy Version: 1.0.85.0
Complete Command Line Was: "C:\Users\marcu\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\CrazyCopyCLI.exe" --destination "d:\My New Folder"
Called Set Destination From Context Menu or CLI
=== SUCCESS ===
Context Menu Completed Setting the Destination: d:\My New Folder

Starting Headless CrazyCopyCLI from the Command Line

Run the CLI version of CrazyCopy like this:

CrazyCopyCLI.exe or just CrazyCopyCLI

To see the list of arguments simply pass the command line argument --help to CrazyCopyCLI

PS C:\Users\marcu> CrazyCopyCLI --help

CrazyCopy Version: 1.0.85.0
Complete Command Line Was: "C:\Users\marcu\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\CrazyCopyCLI.exe" --help
Help: '--help'

Valid CLI Usage:
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --threads <threads to use>                     - No Auto Start. Set Threads to Use Only
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --destination <destination>                    - No Auto Start. Set Destination Folder Only
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --info                                         - Show CLI Settings
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --source <source> --copy                       - Auto Start Copy with Source Folder
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --source <source> --move                       - Auto Start Move with Source Folder
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe <source> <destination> --move                  - Auto Start Safe Move Operation
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe <source> <destination> --copy                  - Auto Start Copy Operation with Copy Over Disabled
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe <source> <destination> --copy --copyover       - Auto Start Copy Operation with Copy Over Enabled
     CrazyCopyCLI.exe --help                                         - This Usage Guide

PS C:\Users\marcu>

Note that all CLI Move operations use Safe Move.

Context Menus From Windows Explorer Folder

CrazyCopy adds the following Context Menu options to all folders in Windows File Explorer : 

CrazyCopy -> Set as Destination 

CrazyCopy -> Copy To Destination

CrazyCopy -> Move To Destination (Uses CrazyCopy Safe Move)

The screenshot below shows the additional CrazyCopy cascade button and 3 push buttons, these are shown when the user right clicks on a Folder from the Windows desktop or File Explorer

image.png

Note that the last button, Move To Destination, is not available from an open folder background menu in File Explorer. This button is only available from an actual Folder Icon Context Menu. Move operations from the Context Menus use CrazyCopy's Safe Move. Also Copy Over is disabled for all copies from the Context Menus.

Copy or Move from Context Menus

  1. Right Click on the Destination Folder first in Windows File Explorer

    image.png

    or Right Click the Background of an Open Folder in File Explorer 

    image.png

  2. Select the Set as Destination 
  3. Right Click the Source Folder in Windows File Explorer or Right Click the Background of an Open Folder in File Explorer 
  4. Select Copy To Destination or Move To Destination to copy or move the Source Folder to the Destination Folder

The chosen Destination Folder remains saved and will stay the same until it is changed from the Context menu (or the command line). So you do not always have to set the Destination Folder before you Copy or Move from the Context Menus. It's recommended to just set it again though if you can't remember the exact path it is currently set to!

To Set the Number of Threads to use when Copying or Moving from the Context Menus use the Command Line --threads argument (see below) like this 

C:\Users\marcu>CrazyCopyCLI --threads 32

CrazyCopy Version: 1.0.97.0
Complete Command Line Was: CrazyCopyCLI  --threads 32
Called Set Number of Threads From Context Menu or CLI
=== SUCCESS ===
Command Line Set Threads To Use: 32
SUCCESS: Set the Number of Threads to 32 From the Command Line.

User Configuration Files 

CrazyCopy saves the user's settings in a user.config file. There are two of these configuration files. The first stores a single shared set of settings for both the Command Line and the Context Menu versions of CrazyCopy. The second config file stores the settings for the Graphical version of CrazyCopy. 

These user.config files (and therefore the settings), are not shared between the GUI version of CrazyCopy and the Command Line/Context Menu versions of CrazyCopy. This allows the user to seperate the use of the GUI version of CrazyCopy from the Context Menus or Command Line version, no interference from each other will arise. You can set the Destination Folder with the Context Menus and keep it set whilst also using the Graphical Version of CrazyCopy with a different Destination Folder.

Supported OS Versions

CrazyCopy currently supports Microsoft Windows 10 and 11 only. Both Pro and Home variants are supported.

How does CrazyCopy handle WSL folders ?

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) allows Linux environments to run within Windows. NTFS file systems in modern Windows versions can support some linux features. A major difference between Windows and Linus is the support for case sensitive file and folder names. Linux supports filenames with case whereas Windows, by default, ignores case differences when comparing file or folder names. For example, Linux considers FILE.txt and file.txt to be two different files, while Windows normally considers them to refer to the same file.

If wsl is enabled in Windows then it is possible to enable per-directory case sensitivity on an NTFS file systems, thus allowing linux like file and folder naming. File and Folder names that differ only by letter case can coexist within the same folder.

For example 

A folder with per-directory Case Sensitivity Enabled could contain the following:

D:\Source\
    SubFolder\
        FILE.txt
        file.txt
    subfolder\
        FILE.txt
        file.txt
    SUBFOLDER\
        FILE.txt
        file.txt

With per-directory case sensitivity enabled on D:\Source and each of its three subfolders, all three subfolders and all six files are distinct objects. A Default installation of Windows on the other hand would only see these unique files and folders, if case sensitivity was disabled (or not supported).

D:\Source\SubFolder
D:\Source\SubFolder\file.txt

Therefore copying a Source folder that contains case sensitive folders will fail if Windows, the NTFS Disk and the Destination Folders do not all support per-directory Case Sensitivity.

To reduce the risk of overwriting files or losing data, Copy Over is not permitted if the Source folder itself, or any of its subfolders has per-directory case sensitivity enabled. CrazyCopy checks for this condition before copying or moving begins, and it will reject the operation if Copy Over is enabled.

When Copy Over is disabled, CrazyCopy may still encounter filename collisions if the destination cannot distinguish between filenames that differ only by letter case. In this situation, the operation will fail rather than deliberately merge the conflicting files.

CrazyCopy displays an error message explaining the problem.

Supported File Types and Folders

CrazyCopy's Copy and Move operations support all Windows and NTFS special file types, except Cloud Placeholder files. Supported types include

  1. Normal files e.g. Text, Images, Binary
  2. Hardlinks - created with mklink /H - These are Copied or Moved the same way as individual files
  3. Junctions - created with mklink /J - A new junction file will be created in the Destination Tree during a Copy or Safe Move operation. The junction target will not be recursively copied (i.e. deep copied). Only a new special junction file is created. When opening the new Destination junction file in Windows File Explorer, the same folder contents that are in the Source Tree's junction folder will be shown.
  4. File or Directory Symbolic Links - made with mklink or mklink /D will still point to their original targets if the target file or folder is outside the Source Folder Tree ie the Folder being copied or moved. If the target file or folder is also being copied or moved (because it's in the same Source Tree as the link), then the new copied link will have its target set to the newly copied or moved target file or folder, instead of the original target (which may now be gone or moved).
  5. Shortcuts (.lnk) - After copying or moving shortcuts, they will still point to their original target if the target file is outside the Source Folder Tree. If the target file is also being copied or moved (because it's in the same Source tree as the shortcut being copied or moved), then the shortcut's target will be set to the newly copied or moved shortcut target, instead of the original target (which may now be gone).

Unsupported File Types

  1. CrazyCopy rejects safely (before starting an operation), any Copy or Move where the Source Folders contain Cloud Placeholders. Use the normal Windows File System for managing any folders that contain Cloud Placeholders. Note that CrazyCopy does allow Copying and Moving to a Cloud Folder.
  2. NTFS file systems in a Windows System that supports case sensitive naming can have files and folders in the same folder whose names differ only by case. To reduce the risk of overwriting or incorrect merging of such files and folders, Copy Over is not permitted when copying a Source Folder that contains case senstive naming.

See the end of this Quick Start Guide for a link to more information in the Unsupported Operations guide.

Cloud Files and Folders

As stated above, a Source Folder can not contain any Cloud Placeholder files, as these are not actually normal files, they are special files that Windows manages. Use Windows Copy and Move to organize your Cloud Placeholders. CrazyCopy does support Cloud Folders though. You can set a Cloud Folder as a Destination or a Source Folder and Crazy Copy will copy or Move files to or from it, as long as the files inside the Source are not Cloud Placeholders.

Junctions, Directory Symbolic Links and Folder Shortcuts as the Source Folder 

Junctions, directory symbolic links, and shortcut to folders can all be valid Source Folders and therefore copied or moved. When Copied or Safe Moved they become a normal folder. Their contents are deep copied meaning the Final Destination Folder will contain the entire contents of the object types target folder. 

OS Move (Non Safe-Move) Junction, Directory Symbolic Link, Folder Shortcut

If performing an OS Move (without using Safe Move) of a Junction, Directory Symbolic Link or Folder Shortcut the OS Move will really move the actual Junction, Directory Symbolic Link or Folder Shortcut. A deep copy of the target folders contents is not performed.

Installation Repair, Reset or Uninstall

To Repair, Uninstall or Reset CrazyCopy use the Windows Application Settings screen for CrazyCopy. Below are the Windows 10 Apps & Features screen, and the CrazyCopy Application screen opened from Add Remove -> CrazyCopy -> Advanced Options link. 

image.png

image.png

Go Forth and Have Fun With CrazyCopy!

Extra Information

  1. CrazyCopy Complete User Manual
  2. Running from the Command Line 
  3. Frequently Asked Questions
  4. Troubleshooting and Support
  5. List of Unsupported Operations
  6. Reparse Point and Shortcut Remapping Rules
  7. Shortcuts, Junctions and Directory Symbolic Links
  8. Comparison to Other Folder Copy Tools
  9. Benchmarks Tests vs Windows GUI
Revision #29
Created 22 September 2026 09:19:02 by marcus
Updated 25 October 2026 02:34:24 by marcus