Move-Item

Move-Item [-LiteralPath] <string[]> [[-Destination] <string>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-Exclude <string[]>] [-Filter <string>] [-Force] [-Include <string[]>] [-PassThru] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [-UseTransaction] [<CommonParameters>]

Move-Item [-Path] <string[]> [[-Destination] <string>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-Exclude <string[]>] [-Filter <string>] [-Force] [-Include <string[]>] [-PassThru] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [-UseTransaction] [<CommonParameters>]

C:\PS>move-item -path C:\test.txt -destination E:\Temp\tst.txt

This command moves the Test.txt file from the C: drive to the E:\Temp directory and renames it from "test.txt" to "tst.txt".

C:\PS>move-item -path C:\Temp -destination C:\Logs

This command moves the C:\Temp directory and its contents to the C:\Logs directory. The Temp directory, and all of its subdirectories and files, then appear in the Logs directory.

C:\PS>move-item -path .\*.txt -destination C:\Logs

This command moves all of the text files (*.txt) in the current directory (represented by a dot (.)) to the C:\Logs directory.

C:\PS>get-childitem -path . -recurse -include *.txt | move-item -destination C:\TextFiles

This command moves all of the text files from the current directory and all subdirectories, recursively, to the C:\TextFiles directory. 

The command uses the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to get all of the child items in the current directory (represented by the dot [.]) and its subdirectories that have a *.txt file name extension. It uses the Recurse parameter to make the retrieval recursive and the Include parameter to limit the retrieval to *.txt files.

The pipeline operator (|) sends the results of this command to Move-Item, which moves the text files to the TextFiles directory.

If files being moved to C:\Textfiles have the same name, Move-Item displays an error and continues, but it moves only one file with each name to C:\Textfiles. The other files remain in their original directories.

If the Textfiles directory (or any other element of the destination path) does not exist, the command fails. The missing directory is not created for you, even if you use the Force parameter. Move-Item moves the first item to a file called "Textfiles" and then displays an error explaining that the file already exists. 

Also, by default, Get-ChildItem does not move hidden files. To move hidden files, use the Force parameter with Get-ChildItem.

C:\PS>move-item hklm:\software\mycompany\* hklm:\software\mynewcompany

This command moves the registry keys and values within the MyCompany registry key in HKLM\Software to the MyNewCompany key. The wildcard character (*) indicates that the contents of the MyCompany key should be moved, not the key itself. In this command, the optional Path and Destination parameter names are omitted.

C:\PS>move-item -literalpath 'Logs[Sept`06]' -destination 'Logs[2006]'

This command moves the Logs[Sept`06] directory (and its contents) into the Logs[2006] directory. 

The LiteralPath parameter is used instead of Path, because the original directory name includes left bracket and right bracket characters ("[" and "]"). The path is also enclosed in single quotation marks (' '), so that the backtick symbol (`) is not misinterpreted. 

The Destination parameter does not require a literal path, because the Destination variable also must be enclosed in single quotation marks, because it includes brackets that can be misinterpreted.