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Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the ìSend Toî target to force Windows to copy the item no matter what.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

The hidden power of 'Send To' in Windows, Part 2


March 4, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Windows lets you copy and move items with a quick click using the "Send To" function. I explained the basics of "Send To" last week.
   But "Send To" -- a little-known function that appears when you click your right mouse button on a file or folder -- has a much more important role. Most people probably don't realize that "Send to" is one of the biggest problem-solvers in Windows.
   The problems "Send To" solve are as old as computers themselves. What do you do when you have a file that Windows doesn't know how to deal with? And how can you get Windows to open a certain file with a program that's different from the one it normally uses?
   "Send To" provides an elegant solution. All you have to do is copy a few program shortcuts to the folder "Send To" uses. Notice that I didn't tell you to copy folder or drive shortcuts. They're the usual ones Power Users think of when they work with "Send To." But the "Send To" shortcuts that get Windows out of trouble represent programs.
   I realize this might sound crazy -- ordinarily, you "send" things by copying them or moving them, and the places you "send" them to are folders or drives. You don't "send" something to a program, right?
   Ah, that's just the point. You actually DO "send" something to a program.
   Look at this another way and youíll see how it works. Suppose you have the Notepad icon on your desktop. You also have the icon for a text file on your desktop. (Ah, you can see this coming, right?) Drag the icon for the text file over to the icon for Notepad and drop it there, and one of those Really Neat Things happens: Windows runs Notepad with the text inside it.
   This is drag-and-drop at its best. Need to look at a mystery file? Drag it over and drop it on the icon for your favorite program.
   Send To does the same thing, but it skips all the dragging and dropping. Letís say you have a shortcut to Notepad in your Send To list. And letís suppose you have a text file somewhere in your folders. (Itís not on your desktop.) And letís agree that it would be too much trouble to drag that text file out from wherever itís hiding just to drop it on the Notepad icon on your desktop.
   If itís a ìrealî text file ñ a file with ìtxtî at the end of the name ñ you can simply double click on the file and Notepad will open it. But ñ yech! ñ what if itís one of those crazy ìRead.meî files you get now and then with downloads? What if itís a text file but Windows doesnít know that itís a text file?
   Send To comes to the rescue. As long as you have the proper program shortcut in your Send To folder, all you do is right click on the file and choose ìSend Toî and then click on the program youíd like to do all this virtual dragging and dropping with.
   Maybe I get carried away with stuff like this, but Iíve got to tell you I think ìSend Toî is the greatest thing since skim milk. It sure makes working with files and folders easy.
   One last thing. Last week I promised Iíd tell you a secret about ìSend Toî that just about nobody else knows. It has to do with sending to a folder.
   If you put a folder (or a drive, such as the floppy drive) in the ìSend Toî list, Windows normally sticks its thumb in your nose and does what IT thinks is right. If you ìSend Toî a folder on the same drive, Windows moves the item. If you ìSend Toî a folder on a different drive (or to another drive, folder or not), Windows copies the item.
   To get exactly what you want, do this: Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the ìSend Toî target to force Windows to copy the item no matter what. Hold down the Shift key to reverse the Windows default, so that it will copy to the same drive or move to another drive.