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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?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
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
I made an actual confirmation dialog upon a drag and drop move event. It works for me but I've only tested it on Windows 7. See my page on it and download here. It's completely open source, and you can see the code on github too.
Hi,
Great , it works fine for me in Win 7 and win 8.1, but very badly needed for Win XP, is there anyway for this, thanks.
Hi,
Dll was very useful, thanks a ton for this,
This works find in Win 7 and win 8.1
But is there anything you can do for this to support for XP machines, will be very usefull if any, thanks a lot
Hi StoneTools, Thank you very much for your detailed message. I've just uploaded a new version finally that will hopefully have resolved this issue. Please try again (link).
Thanks!
As I said, just install the free program Teracopy and that will prevent you accidentally moving files. Microsoft are obviously not interested in providing a solution, so you're just wasting your time asking them.
Examining this issue from a broader perspective ... I also encounter the same accidental drag & drop issue outside of Windows Explorer (eg. in the Bookmarks folder of browsers). I don't suppose Teracopy would help in such cases ?
In my situation, I generally start running into the said issue when the mouse has undergone a few months of usage. My temporary workaround to mitigate the impact is to increase the default values (to 40) for the DragWidth & DragHeight keys in Windows Registry (so as to lessen the Drag Sensitivity).
However, I still manage to encounter accidental drag & drop. Perhaps my hand is not steady enough. I suppose the impact could be more severe for elderly users & those with neurodevelopmental/ hand tremor disabilities.
While the solution for certain users might be to procure a new mouse regularly, perhaps there could instead be a mouse-related utility to prevent accidental drag AND accidental double-click everywhere & not just within Windows Explorer. To my knowledge, a utility already exists to prevent accidental mouse double-click.
Well, just a suggestion for the developers out there seeking a universal solution ...
