Drag and Drop Not Working in Windows 7

Anonymous
2011-03-18T18:18:13+00:00

I have a new problem that has cropped up just in the last week or two. I can no longer drag and drop my files and folders in Windows Explorer. I have Windows 7 on a HP Notebook. It came installed on the computer last December when I bought it (09). I've never had an issue with it since then, and I'm not sure how to find the settings to enable drag and drop or re-enable it. I know I've done it before on this machine, many times- and just noticed it first in  Thunderbird, (my email desktop application) then in explorer. I did recently install the SP1 (spelling??) a few weeks ago, and have installed a few other odds and ends programs, but I'm pretty sure drag and drop was working okay until a few days ago.

Any help would be appreciated. As a genealogy writer, that's a must have feature.

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2011-07-20T06:47:39+00:00

This happened to me yesterday.

In Windows Explorer, click a file with the left mouse button and keep the button held down. Then press the Escape key. Drag and drop is miraculously re-enabled.

I think just pressing the escape will work too but I'm no longer in a position to test that. I got this from http://it.thelibrarie.com/weblog/2010/06/drag-and-drop-stops-working/

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Anonymous
2014-05-15T11:56:09+00:00

This happened to me yesterday.

In Windows Explorer, click a file with the left mouse button and keep the button held down. Then press the Escape key. Drag and drop is miraculously re-enabled.

I think just pressing the escape will work too but I'm no longer in a position to test that. I got this from http://it.thelibrarie.com/weblog/2010/06/drag-and-drop-stops-working/

I don't feel like reading through everything to see if this has been mentioned.  The escape fix worked for me with Win 7.  The only thing I have that is unique from coworkers is a wireless keyboard and mouse.  I expect that has something to do with my issue.

Thanks Nige!

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-19T17:54:34+00:00

    Try  this:

    Drag & Drop issue might occurs if you are running applications with elevated privileges, since Windows, for some security reasons, prevents lover privilege applications to interact with the ones with higher privileges

    You can fix this by disabling the UAC completely In registry editor find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > System, open the Key EnableLUA and change the Value data from 1 to 0

    Just be careful with this if you are using Metro applications, as this tweak might break these

    Quoted from the solution posted on http://superuser.com/questions/654124/unable-to-drag-and-drop-select-multiple-with-mouse

    I had  the same problem, the ctrl-escape worked, but only for a few minutes.  Changing the EnableLUA register seems to have fixed it permanatly.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-09T05:57:39+00:00

    Worked but then it comes right back again.  Is there any way to permanently fix this?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-25T21:37:29+00:00

    Yep Just being in an explorer window and hitting escape fixed it thanks bro!

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