Even better, TeraCopy sports Windows shell integration, allowing you to completely replace Windows Explorer’s normal copy, paste, and move functions with TeraCopy’s excellent alternatives. Rather than halting transfers completely when an error occurs (as Windows 7 so frustratingly does), the program skips over problematic data and instead displays troubled files for your perusal at the end of a mass data migration. That’s not the only useful trick up TeraCopy’s sleeve, though. This utility not only speeds up some file transfers, but it also allows you to pause transfers, a tremendously convenient improvement over Windows’ default functionality. You can improve file copying and moving without upgrading to Windows 8 by installing the utterly superb TeraCopy. Yes, the Windows 7 file copier is just that meh. In fact, while introducing Windows 8’s file-copying tweaks, former Windows president Steven Sinofsky wrote that “ most people do not have a great tool for high-volume copy jobs,” as so few users have a third-party file-copying tool installed on their Windows 7 systems.

The file copier built into Windows 7 isn’t very good by comparison. It brings all copying and moving processes into a single window, tosses in a pause button, deals with file conflicts more intelligently, and is just plain faster than before. Not to brand myself as a geek, but Windows 8’s file-copy dialog box may be its biggest desktop improvement. Improved file copying and moving TeraCopy: Unassuming, yet oh-so-awesome.

Teracopy for windows 7