Quickly Copy File Name and Path
February 17, 2009 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
Can someone please tell me why in the world I can’t simply right-click on a file in Windows and copy it’s complete file directory path and name?
There are many times when you want to share the specific location of a file with someone in an email or perhaps a user guide document and there’s no quick way to do this.
I know you can open the folder, start typing the file name in the address path field and then copy it out of there, but doesn’t that seem pretty convoluted process?
Some people would recommend I just right-click on the file and choose "Create Shortcut" and then send the person that shortcut. That doesn’t really make sense to me either. It’s just annoying. I want the plain and simple text path and file name for the file.
This is a great question, and when I read your rant I thought to myself, “I’m amazed that nobody else has had this problem.”
Turns out that the first hit on google for “right-click full path” solves this problem:
http://blog.rampprojects.com/?p=203
Althought a paths is a string, a GUI implies that there are no paths, only structures of folders and files. Most users don’t need this feature since they never interact with paths directly. Vista even hides the path by default!
Thanks for the link. My question is why in the world doesn’t it exist within the interface itself. Even as an option you could turn on/off as an advanced user. Maybe something like a PowerTools toy would let me do it?
Because you are not supposed to have to understand the arcane details of file path specifications, deferencing of shortcuts, UNCs, pseudoprotocols or anything else to use a computer with a Graphical User Interface. The idea is that you can point and click to open files, and drag and drop to move them between folders.
A good parallel to this problem is file extensions. Advanced users know that because of the long history of computers, most filenames end with a period followed by a couple of characters that provide a hint to the OS about the “type” of file. This goes back to DOS and 8.3 and even farther. Modern operatings systems, including OS X and Windows XP and Vista hide these extensions from you in the GUI. There is a feature to turn them back on, but most people never need this feature.
For example, on OS X, the path separator character is a colon, but almost nobody who uses a Mac has any idea what that statement means! This is by design.
For more on the nature of this problem, I suggest learning more about the difference between Raymond and Jonny:
http://www.robbyslaughter.com/blog/?2008-03-14
1. Open the Explorer and navigate to the desired file.
2. Press Windows Key [between Ctrl & Alt] and R together to bring up the Run dialog box
3. Drag the desired file from the explorer in the Run box. This drag operation will place the whole path of the file including the file name itself will be copied to the Run box.
Have fun.
arehman626