Last week I posted the excellent news that the Robocopy in new versions of Microsoft Windows is multi-threaded and thus much (much!) faster. Then I tried to actually use it on a Windows Vista machine. Redmond, we have a problem.
Spot the Problem
Let’s play a little game, shall we? Let’s see if you can spot the problem!
![Windows Vista robocopy.exe details](http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Windows-Vista-robocopy.exe-details.png)
![Windows 7 robocopy.exe details](http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Windows-7-robocopy.exe-details.png)
Now let’s run “robocopy /mt” so see if multi-threading is supported!
![Windows 7 robocopy mt output](http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/mt-output-300x189.png)
![Windows Vista robocopy mt output](http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/mt-output1-300x180.png)
There you have it. Two executables with the same version number but substantial differences in functionality. Thanks, Microsoft!
It turns out that only the “6.1” versions of Microsoft Windows (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2) include multi-threaded robocopy. And my buddies tell me you can’t just move the exe to older versions.
>Robocopy.exe /MT
*.*
*.* /COPY:DAT /MT:8 /R:1000000 /W:30
—
nothing else… wtf?