Robocopy GUI - User Guide

A lightweight Windows GUI wrapper for robocopy. No installation required — runs natively via PowerShell and WPF.

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Getting Started

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• PowerShell 5.1+ (pre-installed on all modern Windows)

Launching

Double-click RobocopyGUI.bat or run from a terminal:

C:\tools\RobocopyTools\RobocopyGUI.bat

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Interface Overview

The GUI is split into sections from top to bottom:

1. Source & Destination

Control	Description
Source	The folder you want to copy from.
Destination	The folder you want to copy to.
Browse	Opens a folder picker dialog.
Swap button (arrows)	Swaps source and destination paths.

You can also drag and drop folders from Explorer directly into either field.

2. Preset & Threads

Presets auto-configure the option checkboxes for common scenarios:

Preset	What it does
Copy (default)	Copies all files and subdirectories to the destination. Existing destination files are kept.
Mirror	Makes the destination an exact copy of the source. Files in the destination that don't exist in the source are deleted.
Move	Copies files and subdirectories, then deletes them from the source.
Sync (no delete)	Copies newer/changed files without removing anything from the destination.
Custom	Leaves all checkboxes as-is for manual configuration.

Threads controls how many parallel copy threads robocopy uses (default: 16). Higher values speed up transfers of many small files. Lower values are gentler on disk/network.

3. Options

Toggle individual robocopy flags:

Option	Flag	Description
Copy subdirectories	/E	Includes all subdirectories, even empty ones.
Delete dest extras	/PURGE	Removes files/folders in the destination that no longer exist in the source.
Move files	/MOV	Deletes files from the source after copying.
Move files+dirs	/MOVE	Deletes files and empty directories from the source after copying.
Restartable mode	/Z	Enables resumable transfers — useful for large files over unreliable networks.
Network compression	/COMPRESS	Compresses data during transfer (Windows 10 1903+ over SMB).
Show ETA	/ETA	Displays estimated time of arrival for each file.
No progress	/NP	Hides per-file percentage progress (cleaner log output).
Copy all attributes	/COPYALL	Copies data, attributes, timestamps, security, owner, and auditing info.
Copy with security	/SEC	Copies files with NTFS security (ACLs).
Copy dir timestamps	/DCOPY:DAT	Preserves directory timestamps.
Create dir tree only	/CREATE	Creates the folder structure without copying any file data (0-byte files).

Additional fields:

Field	Description
Retries	Number of retry attempts on failed copies (default: 3).
Wait	Seconds to wait between retries (default: 5).
Include	File patterns to include, e.g. *.jpg *.png. Only matching files are copied.
Exclude	Patterns to exclude. File patterns like *.tmp *.log are excluded with /XF. Bare names like node_modules are excluded as directories with /XD.
Extra args	Any additional robocopy arguments not covered by the GUI.

4. Command Preview

Shows the exact robocopy command that will be executed. Updates live as you change any option. Useful for learning robocopy syntax or verifying your configuration before running.

5. Output

Displays robocopy's real-time output as it runs. The status indicator in the top-right shows:

• Running... (yellow) — operation in progress
• DRY RUN... (yellow) — simulated run in progress
• Completed (exit code: N) (green) — finished successfully
• Error (exit code: N) (red) — finished with errors
• Stopped (red) — manually cancelled

6. Action Buttons

Button	Description
Run Robocopy	Starts the copy operation.
Dry Run (/L)	Simulates the operation without copying anything. Shows what would happen. Use this first to verify.
Stop	Kills a running robocopy process.
Clear Log	Clears the output panel.

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Robocopy Exit Codes

Robocopy uses a bitmask for exit codes. Codes 0-7 are not errors:

Code	Meaning
0	No files were copied. Source and destination are already in sync.
1	Files were copied successfully.
2	Extra files or directories were detected in the destination.
3	Files were copied and extra files were detected.
4	Mismatched files or directories were found.
5	Files were copied and mismatches were found.
7	Files were copied, extras detected, and mismatches found.
8+	Errors occurred. Check the output log for details.

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Common Workflows

Back up a folder

1. Set Source to the folder you want to back up.
2. Set Destination to your backup location.
3. Leave the preset on Copy.
4. Click Run Robocopy.

Create an exact mirror

1. Set source and destination.
2. Select the Mirror preset.
3. Click Dry Run first to review what will be deleted from the destination.
4. If the dry run looks correct, click Run Robocopy.

Copy only certain file types

1. Set source and destination.
2. In the Include field, type the patterns: *.jpg *.png *.mp4
3. Click Run Robocopy.

Exclude specific folders

1. Set source and destination.
2. In the Exclude field, type folder names: node_modules .git __pycache__
3. Click Run Robocopy.

Transfer large files over a flaky network

1. Set source and destination.
2. Check Restartable mode (/Z).
3. Set Retries to 10 and Wait to 30.
4. Click Run Robocopy.

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Tips

• Always dry run first when using Mirror or Move presets. These delete files.
• The GUI auto-loads the source path if you previously marked a folder using the Robocopy context menu tool.
• You can resize the window to see more output.
• The Command Preview is a great way to learn robocopy flags — adjust options and watch the command update.