Copy File Name And Path as Text In Vista With Keyboard Shortcut

While Vista added many new features to it's interface, it also included many new features to Windows Explorer interface as well. With the introduction of breadcrumb trails as the default view in the address bar:

Vista also lets you change the view to XP's path style:

This feature is handy if you have the need to copy the path of folders as text. But how about copying the path to files including the file name? Vista has that covered with a hidden shortcut to easily copy file paths using the keyboard.

In XP you would first need to copy the path of the folder, paste it somewhere, then right click the file and select properties of a file to copy the file name (way to many steps).

To easily copy the full path to a file, including it's file name in Vista, locate the file using Windows Explorer or Search for the file, then hold the Shift key and Right click on the file name.

In the Right click context menu select Copy as Path.

Now when you paste…

"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe"

…the path to the file will also include the file name with quotes. Sweet!