Quickly Copy, Move & Access files on Google Drive, SkyDrive & Others

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How many cloud-storage services are you using? We already had Dropbox, SkyDrive, SugarSync, and many others, and yesterday we saw the newest entrant – Google Drive. In a way it’s good to have so many options as users can now choose a service that they are comfortable with, and competition among companies is always good for the customers.

If you use more than one service to store your files, one major problem is the difficulty in managing them. Each cloud service has their dedicated desktop clients and they all are great, but the issue is – they are all installed in different locations. Navigating through multiple folder levels just to copy/move a file just isn’t convenient. So, here’s a quicker way to do that using the Windows ‘Sent To’ context menu.

Windows SendTo menu

Open the Run dialog box (Win + R) and paste in this : %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo to open the SendTo folder.

When the SendTo folder opens, right-click (note – right-click) on a service icon in the left pane, under “Favorites,” and drag it over to an empty area of the SendTo folder in the right pane. Then let go of the icon, and select “Create shortcuts here.” You should have a new icon as seen below:

That’s one service in your ‘Sent To’ menu. Repeat the same steps to add others services you use.

You could also use a software like SendTo Manager to directly add/manage Sent To context menu options. For this, you need direct paths to a service folder. You can get this by navigating to the folder and clicking on the address bar.

Now, to quickly copy any file or folder to a cloud service directory, simply right-click on it, then go to “Send to” and choose the Service. Or to move a file/folder, do the same but this time keep the Shift key pressed on your keyboard.

Another tip to save time and mouse clicks is by creating virtual folder drives for the cloud services. Portable Visual Subst application would help you with that. You can also use Otixo to create a network drive and access all your cloud files in one easy location, but it has a monthly bandwidth cap of 300 MB for free users.