You're running Windows Explorer (or File Explorer as it's become known in later versions)...
If you're on the same drive, in File Explorer a drag operation is a Move, while if you're dragging from one drive to another it becomes a Copy operation by default.
This is nothing new, and I didn't just discover it. However, for the umpteenth time throughout my career I managed to move a file instead of copying it.
It finally occurred to me to seek a remedy.
I'm glad I did! It turns out Windows provides a simple registry tweak that allows you to make the default Drag/Drop operation a Copy in all cases!
Credit where credit is due - the info is from this site:
I don't know what small-minded Microsoft person thought that making an operation this fundamental work differently depending on source and target, but it is what it is. It sometimes catches even the most seasoned Windows users off guard, but I can tell you that it's not going to catch me any more!
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
This is exactly why I have been using right click drag for more than a decade now. Most people don't even know about this. Like the Apple people used to say, " why would you want more than one button, it's too confusing."
Normally I use the right-click drag as well, but when you're doing a lot of things and have some other software that expects you to do left-click drags (or maybe are just losing your mind, as I am) mistakes can be made.
-Noel
Author of the "How to Configure the 'To Work' Options" series of Windows books. Not feeling enough love to do one for Windows 10.
Post by Locutus deBorg on Feb 18, 2016 0:38:55 GMT -6
this is precisely why I could beat the livin' daylights outta the dufus who decided File Manager was not worthy of updating beyond NT4
File Manager was easy to set certain things to do what you want as well as it had prompt on dragon droppings
you could never screw up the actions with rat confirmation enabled as it asked of all things
> Do you want to MOVE ...
some of what File Manager needed in terms of reprogramming was support for plug n pray winders adding and deleting drives requires closing and opening File Manager due to: > it doesn't know what happened it won't recognize new drives and it won't release removed drives until it's closed and reopened it doesn't support NT Junctions / Mount Points it doesn't support any right rat button usage etc.
there is only one usage case for what winders exploder does by default dragon droppings from one drive to another when you actually want it to be a move when 2 or more physical HDDs / partitions with different drive letters are mounted as Junctions in one location eg. C:\Area 51\D C:\Area 51\E C:\Area 51\F ...
drag files from "...\E\..." to "...\F\..." or "...\D\..." etc. results in a Move rather than a Copy
when I do that this way, Move is exactly what I want when I do it in the Junctions
for Copy between different drive letters I do disk to disk normally for Copy on same drive / partition must use right click dragon dropping or command prompt
depending on the number of files it can be a million × faster to type: copy *.whatever new location
I find the lack of configuration options disturbing !
I felt a great disturbance in the force.. as if millions of win 7 systems suddenly cried out in terror.
You're running Windows Explorer (or File Explorer as it's become known in later versions)...
If you're on the same drive, in File Explorer a drag operation is a Move, while if you're dragging from one drive to another it becomes a Copy operation by default...
While the default mode of moving on a drive and copying between drives would be my preference, and I am completely familiar with the [Shift]=Move, [Ctrl]=Copy, [Ctrl]+[Shift]=Shortcut modifiers, I'm glad that this option for consistency exists. Now. . . to get Microsoft to add this secret option to the Folder Options dialog would be the real trick. Along with detecting accidental drag'n'drop operations caused by briefly hitting a mouse button while moving the pointer. Ignoring all drag'n'drop operations that started and ended in less than a half-second would be a good starting point. Can't say how many times I have found entire folder trees of mine and my customers' in some of the strangest locations!
But why would Microsoft want to improve? It's not like they're trying to compete with Apple or anything...
Microsoft, is Windows 10 the best you could do? Really? After promising to listen to our feedback, what a letdown!
I used to have that happen a lot way back when, then I found a tweak that allows the distance the mouse has to move before a drag is considered started to be increased and it cleared it up for me entirely. The ability to change it used to be provided as part of the long-gon XP-era PowerToys TweakUI tool.
The distance actually should have to do with how much you move the mouse, but these settings are calibrated in how many pixels on screen the mouse has to move.
I no longer remember the defaults, but see what you have these set to and try increasing them over what you have...
I think we have a judge of character thing happening here. It's funny how the operation of a computer program can bring that out at times. Personally, I've been a right click person when it comes to file management with it's roots going all the way back to Windows 95. With Windows 3.x and older where right click was rarely supported, it was always left click and drag, then confirm your actions through a dialog box that would pop-up. In Windows 95, that was lost and the results of left click and drag became too unpredictable for me to use reliably which is why I became a right click convert. Anyway, when one thinks about it, left click and drag is one of the very first lessons we have all learnt in using a windows based computer. For a veteran, it becomes an ingrained function that can be hard to shake off while for a newbie, it's their one and only lifeline to using a windows based computer. In either case, I could see the registry fix as being a good thing for getting some expected consistency through mouse actions.
In regards to the drag'n'drop problem while clicking and dragging, I know I've heard those words of "oops" or "oh sh*t" or some other choice explicative way too often by people doing left click operations. I have to agree with Mike that in many cases, those same people aren't aware of the secondary, more controllable options right clicking can bring you. I know I've become something of a hero in some of those peoples eyes once I've shown then how to right click and to do copy then paste once they have found the new folder to where they want to put their files into. The expletives suddenly disappear after that.
<Rick> Good video. It's almost hard to believe that at one time Windows 98 was the resource hog, but even then, it still ran circles around what Windows 10 can do on today's modern hardware and look a heck of alot better doing it.
May 25, 2021 22:55:12 GMT -6
<Rick> As stated elsewhere, So much for the launch of Windows 11, "The Great Crash." Myself, I had a hard time getting into the site listed above, when I did get in, the video was partly done and then it crashed. There has been many other reports of crashing.
Jun 24, 2021 9:52:33 GMT -6
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<Rick> I see Microsoft has been very quick to pull down reports of site crashing regarding the Launch of Windows 11 on the Microsoft Insiders forum.
Jun 24, 2021 9:57:31 GMT -6
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<Rick> The rebroadcast is working okay.
Jun 24, 2021 11:00:25 GMT -6
<Rick> With reports of people being able to install the dev-edition of Windows 11 on machines not meeting spec, I thought I would give it a what-the-heck try. Lucky me, I'm caught in the downloading, doesn't meet spec, clearing, re-downloading loop on my machine!
Jul 2, 2021 7:08:46 GMT -6
<Rick> I've recently purchased a license for ArcaOS from www.arcanoae.com/ to play with. First impressions, it's still OS/2, but it now has a Linux twist to it.
Jul 2, 2021 7:32:53 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> laptop shit out and am stuck buying a new one. os win11 as fucked as win10 was?
Oct 2, 2021 12:56:10 GMT -6
<Rick> Let's see ..., my impression of Windows 11 is that it is a spruced up version of Windows 10 requiring a 64-bit processor plus a piece of security hardware that is less than 4 years old in order for it to run.
Oct 4, 2021 18:25:49 GMT -6
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<Rick> On the plus side, Microsoft is supposed to be supporting Windows 10 for some time to come for those of us still using systems with I7 or older processors.
Oct 4, 2021 18:44:35 GMT -6
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<dozrguy> i tried installing win10 om the 'shitout' pc this morning usung media creation. EPIC FAIL! went into an endless bootloop. win7 reinstalled just fine
Oct 21, 2021 11:23:38 GMT -6
<dozrguy> STILL so much bullshit and so little time for the kiddie ideas from the hill. My new laptop (MSI GE 11-UH461) would be an awesome "10" machine but because of Winblows I can only give it a "2"......wasted $3500
Oct 27, 2021 9:36:47 GMT -6
<Rick> Hello. Just checking in.
Mar 17, 2022 10:46:54 GMT -6
<isidroco> Each new w10 update adds >100000 useless files to \Windows\Servicing\LCU\Package_for_RollupFix... folders. Even in a SSD takes time to delete that stuff. In each version they manage to worsen stuff.
Mar 27, 2022 16:14:51 GMT -6
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<dozerguy> still traffic here?
Oct 9, 2022 17:32:44 GMT -6
<Rick> No, there does not seem to be very much traffic these days. I still check in from time to time.
Oct 9, 2022 20:08:58 GMT -6