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
    2014-02-26T17:48:01+00:00

    That fix worked with windows 2000 back when internet explorer policy applied to windows explorer as well.  In their infinite wisdom Microsoft stopped that from happening in xp but never implemented any new policy for explorer to duplicate the setting.  We have been waiting 11 years now for Microsoft to get their act together and do something but as we saw by the initial reply to this thread they are in denial that it ever existed in the first place.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-11T12:13:08+00:00

    http://kingsmarket.org/StopDragNDrop.html

    Doesn't work either. I made the edits and rebooted and there's no difference when left-click and dragging.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-14T12:56:40+00:00

    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? 

    I've found this doesn't prevent accidental left-click dragging at all. All it seems to do is bring up a menu when right-click dragging.

    Using the Single-click to open helps somewhat, as there's less chance of jerking the mouse and accidentally moving the folder than with double-clicking. It's still pathetic that MS don't provide any options to prevent users accidentally moving entire folders without confirmation though.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-23T13:05:30+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? 

    this is a bit of a registry hack, i'm currently testing this on my Windows 7 machine but to no avail. however here is a link that shows the modification that can be made.

    https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/microsoft.public.win2000.registry/FPf5odcq0NY/WMFDuSQNxAEJ

    NOTE: if you are not comfortable making changes in regedit get one of your IT guys to look at this for you. and ALWAYS make a backup prior to making any changes... let us know how you get on.

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