Is there a Windows API to programmatically Cut / Copy / Paste files via Windows Explorer?

It's difficult to imagine why such a function would exist, or what good it would be if it did.

Cut/copy and paste are provided for the convenience of the user. It allows them to move/copy something somewhere else at a later date. The application that implements cut/copy and paste functionality may not know where the data is ultimately going to be pasted, but that's okay because the user still knows.

But an application doing a cut/copy-paste action doesn't make a lot of sense because in order for the "paste" part to work, the application has to know where the item is going to be pasted. And if it knows that, then it could just call the SHFileOperation function that you already know about.

If you are really just talking about providing the user with the ability to cut/copy/paste an item, then you will want to use the clipboard—just like Windows does. When an item is cut or copied, it's placed on the clipboard. When an item is pasted, the current contents of the clipboard are retrieved. Use the Windows clipboard API functions to interact with the clipboard.

I implemented it in my file manager, here's the link to the GitHub source for the copy function. Paste is nearby.

It works by creating an invisible Explorer context menu for the file system items of interest, and then invoking the Cut, Copy, or Paste command from that menu. It's in C++ (because COM), but I'm sure you can use COM from other languages as well somehow.

bool copyObjectsToClipboard(std::vector<std::wstring> objects, void * parentWindow){    ComInitializer comInitializer;    IContextMenu * imenu = 0;    HMENU hMenu = NULL;    if (!prepareContextMenuForObjects(objects, parentWindow, hMenu, imenu) || !hMenu || !imenu)        return false;    CComInterfaceReleaser menuReleaser(imenu);    const char command[] = "Copy";    CMINVOKECOMMANDINFO info = { 0 };    info.cbSize = sizeof(info);    info.hwnd = (HWND)parentWindow;    info.lpVerb = command;    info.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL;    const auto result = imenu->InvokeCommand((LPCMINVOKECOMMANDINFO)&info);    DestroyMenu(hMenu);    return SUCCEEDED(result);}

// https://docs.microsoft.com/ja-jp/windows/desktop/dataxchg/standard-clipboard-formatsconst char* wichStandardClipboardFormatsIsAvailable(){    // Standard Clipboard Formats    // CF_BITMAP            : 2    // CF_DIB               : 8    // CF_DIBV5             :17    // CF_DIF               : 5    // CF_DSPBITMAP         :0x0082    // CF_DSPENHMETAFILE    :0x008E    // CF_DSPMETAFILEPICT   :0x0082    // CF_DSPTEXT           :0x0081    // CF_ENHMETAFILE       :14    // CF_GDIOBJFIRST       :0x0300    // CF_GDIOBJLAST        :0x03FF    // CF_HDROP             :15    // CF_LOCALE            :16    // CF_METAFILEPICT      :3    // CF_OEMTEXT           :7    // CF_OWNERDISPLAY      :0x0080    // CF_PALETTE           :9    // CF_PENDATA           :10    // CF_PRIVATEFIRST      :0x0200    // CF_PRIVATELAST       :0x02FF    // CF_RIFF              :11    // CF_SYLK              :4    // CF_TEXT              :1    // CF_TIFF              :6    // CF_UNICODETEXT       :13    // CF_PRIVATELAST       :0x02FF    // CF_WAVE              :12    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_BITMAP";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DIB) ) {        return "CF_DIB";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DIBV5) ) {        return "CF_DIBV5";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DIF) ) {        return "CF_DIF";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DSPBITMAP) ) {        return "CF_DSPBITMAP";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DSPENHMETAFILE) ) {        return "CF_DSPENHMETAFILE";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_DSPMETAFILEPICT) ) {        return "CF_DSPMETAFILEPICT";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_HDROP) ) {        return "CF_HDROP";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_GDIOBJFIRST) ) {        return "CF_GDIOBJFIRST";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_GDIOBJLAST) ) {        return "CF_GDIOBJLAST";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_HDROP) ) {        return "CF_HDROP";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_LOCALE) ) {        return "CF_LOCALE";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_METAFILEPICT) ) {        return "CF_METAFILEPICT";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_OEMTEXT) ) {        return "CF_OEMTEXT";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_OWNERDISPLAY) ) {        return "CF_OWNERDISPLAY";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_PALETTE) ) {        return "CF_PALETTE";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_RIFF) ) {        return "CF_RIFF";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_SYLK";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_TEXT";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_UNICODETEXT";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_PRIVATELAST";    }    if ( IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_BITMAP) ) {        return "CF_WAVE";    }    return "CF_NOT_STANDARD";}

https://github.com/WaitrudWeber/source_zip/blob/master/winmain-20190111.zip

1. execute winmain_001.exe.
2. copy file in the explore.
3. press ctl and then v
4. you could see CF_HDROP

you see the function: wichStandardClipboardFormatsIsAvailable in winmain_001.cpp and https://docs.microsoft.com/ja-jp/windows/desktop/dataxchg/standard-clipboard-formats

once I misslead you and am so sorry to everyone.