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How to Copy a Directory in CMD

You can use the following syntax in Command Prompt (CMD) to copy a directory and its contents:

xcopy source_directory destination_directory /E /I

This example will copy the specified directory and all its contents to the new location.

Note: The /E flag copies all subdirectories, including empty ones, and the /I flag assumes the destination is a directory if it does not exist.

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Copying a Directory in CMD

Suppose that we want to copy a directory named my_app to my_demoApp in the following path:

C:\Users\admin\Documents\cmd_script

We can type the following command to copy the directory:

xcopy C:\Users\admin\Documents\cmd_script\my_app C:\Users\admin\Documents\cmd_script\my_demoApp /E /I

The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:

Copy a directory in cmd
Copy a directory in cmd

We can see that the directory my_app and all its contents (scheduler.bat file) have been copied to my_demoApp in C:\Users\admin\Documents\cmd_script.

Conclusion

We can use the xcopy command followed by the path to copy any directory and its contents on the system.

You can find more topics about Active Directory tools and PowerShell basics on the ActiveDirectoryTools home page.