I want to copy all files from the output of:

find /mnt/WINDOWS/Temporary?Internet?Files/ -name '*.gif'

to /root/pics

What is the best way to do this?

I don't like find. This should work instead:

First, since you want to write to root users folder, you will have to run the command as root.

Second, something like this might work:

cp -R `find /mnt/WINDOWS/Temporary\ Internet\ Files/ -name '*.gif'` /root/pics

Note the backticks before find and after '*.gif'. Also note the backslash space in the Temporary\ Internet\ Files. cp -R says make recursive copy (through any directory structure in Temporary Internet Files; \ space escapes the space in the directory name; the backticks result in the find command being executed. The results of find are copied to /root/pics.

Or something along those lines, at any rate.

But, I like FreeDoughnut's version better.

I can't understand why anyone would dislike find nor why someone would complicate it beyond what it already is by wrapping commands around it needlessly.

Edit: Explanation, "-exec" will execute the following commands terminated by a ";" (which must be escaped from the shell). And {} is replaced with the name of each matching file, in turn. We escape these as well just to ensure that the shell doesn't complain.