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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?
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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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In Windows 7 under Mouse settings I checked the box "Turn on ClickLock." This causes a box to pop up "Move to folder name" and the user will have to click a folder to move it or not. I will change this on several computers to see if this helps or hinders users.
I thought for a bit that this was a great solution - until I tried to do something else in Win7. This works for accidental drag and drop of folders while moving mouse over folders and accidentally clicking (unless accidentally clicking twice in the same dragging motion I suppose). But it messes with clicking in almost every other usage as well, so is unusable as a solution because the cure is worse than the problem. Thanks for the answer though.
In Windows 7 under Mouse settings I checked the box "Turn on ClickLock." This causes a box to pop up "Move to folder name" and the user will have to click a folder to move it or not. I will change this on several computers to see if this helps or hinders users.
Gurulan, did your testing prove successful?
Adding my vote that this needs fixing. This is a big issue for less experienced users, but even very experienced users such as myself occasionally will accidentally drop a file/folder being dragged into an unintended folder. It's so easy to happen, just takes a momentary loss of contact with a trackpad, or let up on pressure on the mouse while moving it. Also a big accessibility issue for some people who can't reliably do the rather intricate physical motions involved: click, drag, drop, while monitoring small icons on the screen.
I would prefer to have an option that doesn't allow moving an icon (file/folder) into a folder icon at all. Instead, to move a file you would need to open a second window and navigate into that folder, then drag between the windows.
Failing that, a confirmation dialog should appear whenever moving an icon into a folder icon. I prefer to NOT get this dialog if just dragging between windows.
