Drag and Drop Confusion Resolved
- Oct 16, 2008 12:00 PM EST
- [num] Comments
Q: I hope you can help. My operating system is Windows XP, SP3. I have three hard drives each with the same information: Layout=Partition, Type=basic and File System=NTFS. Windows reports their status as healthy, C: as System and the other two as Active. I have created shortcuts to folders on each of these three drives. If I drag a file from the desktop and drop it on the C: shortcut, the file is moved to the new location. If I drop it on D: or E: the file is copied. What could be causing this, and is it fixable? - Denis Ivins.
A: This is absolutely normal behavior. It just seems odd because you get different behavior from apparently identical shortcuts. When you drag/drop a file between locations on the same drive, the default behavior is to MOVE it. When you drag/drop to a different drive the default behavior is to COPY it. You can actually notice the difference in the mouse cursor: The mouse cursor actually changes to show whether dropping the file will move or copy it. If it's going to make a copy a little "boxed plus" appears next to the arrow. In Vista it actually spells out "Move to xxx" or "Copy to xxx"; I like that!
If you drag using the right mouse button you get a choice - on dropping the file a menu lets you move it, copy it, or create a shortcut. You can also override the default behavior by holding Shift or Ctrl. Shift changes the default COPY to MOVE. Ctrl changes the default MOVE to COPY. You can watch the little boxed plus appear and disappear as you use these keys. Me, I always find that if there's any doubt right-dragging is the clearest. - Neil J. Rubenking.