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Have you ever pondered why the heck there isn’t a “No to All” button when copying files to a new location in Windows 98/2000/XP? It’s certainly a pain when you need to copy only several new/changed files and your destination directory already has, say, 150 of the files that your source directory has.

Windows will let you just replace all of them with the click of a button. that is, the Yes to All button. But that can take forever if copying over a network. There has never been an option to say only copy newer files or only copy files that aren’t already there. Third party directory-comparison utilities are needed for this type of file maneuvering.

Windows Vista offers this capability to some extent, but what about those of us who have not (or will not) upgrade to that horrible piece of junk OS just yet?

Here’s a down and dirty trick to quickly copy only files that don’t already exist in the destination directory:

1. Select all files in the source directory. Yup, all of them.
2. Drag or otherwise copy them to the destination directory.
3. When prompted with the yes, yes to all, no screen, hold down the N key.
4. Watch the annoying little screen blink rapidly as it attempts to keep up with your infinite number of N keystrokes.
5. Let go of the N key when the transfer is finished.

Have a lot more files to copy? Think like McGyver and stick something on the N key while you go pour a cup of coffee…

Stupid, huh? In fact, so stupid easy that is is amazing it wasn’t integrated into this menu sooner.

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