Technique Microsystems Ltd.

If you've ever needed to move large amounts of data across volumes using Windows Explorer, you were probably disappointed to find that you had to recreate all of your permissions.

By default, when you move files and folders on the same volume, permissions are kept in tact and when you copy files, or move them across volume boundaries, ACLs are inherited from the destination. Fortunately there's a registry key that allows you to change this behavior. Just copy the code below into a file with a .REG extension (ex: ForceCopyAclwithFile.reg) and double click it to make the change.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"ForceCopyAclwithFile"=dword:00000001

Now you can copy a large folder tree with customized permissions without having to go back and redo all your hard work. There's a Microsoft article that explains the behavior in more detail.