Drag and Drop confirmation prompt? Accidentally moving files.

Anonymous
2011-03-25T15:44:05+00:00

Ever since upgrading to Windows 7, we have had a problem with people inadvertently moving folders by dragging and dropping when meaning to double click.  Is there a way to turn on a confirmation prompt ("are you sure you want to...") when dragging and dropping files/folders?  It seems that previous versions of Windows had this prompt, but it has since been removed.  This is happening in our office on at least a weekly basis, sometimes daily, and we have to spend time searching for the moved folder.  If MS is unable to help, is there software that we can purchase to accomplish this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2011-03-25T16:29:55+00:00

Windows 7 made no changes: there has never been a confirmation prompt like you describe.

One workaround is to increase the distance you must move the pointer before it triggers a drag.  Under the following registry key, you'll see DragHeight and DragWidth, which define the number of pixels the mouse must move before the drag is initiated:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT\USER\Control Panel\Desktop

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-04-27T00:14:08+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-04-26T14:09:06+00:00

    This isn't a useful solution.  For instance our main problems come when we are trying to drag the slider up the menu but accidentally click on the folder as the slider bar is not that wide.  As you are deliberately trying to drag the slider a long distance the sensitivity for drag and drop is useless.

    Give us a prompt to confirm that dragging and dropping a folder to a new location is what we want to do, before completing the operation.  Would save a lot of time and effort hunting for missing folders

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-26T20:10:14+00:00

    I have had problems when using the touch pad on my laptop accidently moving files and folders while navigating file explorer.

    To prevent this, disable touch to click settings:

    Control panel>Hardware and Sound>Mouse

    Mouse properties will open in a new window. Select device settings tab. Make sure touch pad is highlighted in the listed devices, then click on settings.

    Uncheck the box labeled "Enable Tapping"

    You will now have to use the buttons under your touch pad to click. This work around will prevent accidentally moving files while navigating through folders but will take some getting use to because you will have to use the right and left click buttons.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-19T20:28:05+00:00

    There is a freeware, third-party software tool that you can use to install a confirmation prompt for dragging and dropping files in the Windows environment. It's called "DragDropConfirm" and you can find it with a quick Google query. I've got it installed on my machine, and it works well. Basically, what it does is, when you drag and drop something, it checks to see if the default action is to "move" the file, and a dialogue box appears asking if you're sure that's what you want to do.

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