Resolved Can't drag and drop onto a shortcut

My XPP SP3 Acer laptop has had, for several years, an irritating glitch - it won't allow me to drag and drop a file or folder onto a folder shortcut.

But I can drag and drop onto (or into) the actual folder. So I'm forced to carry out an extra step - double click the folder shortcut to open the folder, THEN do the drag and drop.

Doing the same thing on any of my four desktop XPPSP3 computers works perfectly, so I know the operation is possible.

Anyone else had this glitch and fixed it? It's not really a BFD but it's a durn nuisance, as I have to keep reminding myself that the process doesn't work properly on this one machine.

 

Is it only shortcuts on the desktop? What about if you create shortcuts in say, your My Documents folder?

If it on the desktop, check if you have Active Desktop enabled (see Help and Support for how to check the settings). Disable it, then delete and remake the shortcut again.

The desktop is quite a special directory. You run things like Active Desktop, themes, backgrounds, etc, on it, so I don't let many files or folders build up.

Anyway, let us know if it is isolated to shortcuts on the desktop.

Matt

 

Hi mattman. Actually, I didn't say that the problem involves desktop shortcuts. The folder where it's most annoying, because of the time I spend there, is just a folder under C:\, called Archives.

But the glitch seems to occur anywhere, so I guess it's a global issue.

And no, I don't use Active Desktop.

But, regarding the desktop, there's one odd thing I've noticed. Let's say I open only C:\Archives and resize the folder to occupy about half the screen. In the background, behind C:\Archives, I can clearly see the desktop, which is just plain blue with a few icons and shortcuts on it.

C:\Archives contains about a dozen subfolders and around 100 loose files; docs, txts, pdfs etc.

Let's say that, while I'm in C:\Archives, I create a shortcut to one of its subfolders, then try and drag a .doc on top of the shortcut.

As I said in my first post, nothing happens. No option to 'move' or 'copy', no file transfer, nil, nada, zip.

But if I create a shortcut to that same subfolder and drag it to the desktop, then try to drag a file over the shortcut, the file seems to 'bounce off' the desktop shortcut and appears beside it on the desktop.

Is that weird or what?

 

Rubber shortcuts?

It might have been easier to get an idea of the problem when it first started, what changes were made, like installing/uninstalling software, if there was any malware activity/removal, incorrect registry cleaning, etc. It might be quite difficult to track down now.

Run Error Checking (CHKDSK) with a disk surface test, that's about all I can suggest.

Matt

 

You could also try: Click Start, click on Run and type sfc /scannow into the search bar, hit enter. That should correct any damaged files in the window registry. You may need your OS disc if it asks for it.

 

Thanks for your suggestions guys, but I tried all the usual bug fixes some time back without anything changing. It's obviously some very localized glitch because everything else works normally.

As I said, it's no big deal, just another Windows annoyance.

Thanks again and let's hope that 2011 will be a better year for everyone

 

If it is an error in the registry causing the problem (which it most probably is) sfc /scannow will fix it or the next level up would be to run a Repair install from the OS disc which will reinstall the registry but leave all your files and software intact.

The choice is yours, but if you wish to end here please mark the thread as resolved from the Thread Tools tab in the top right hand corner of the first post.

 

Thanks. I'll mark it as unresolvably resolved