Win Drag and drop

Win Drag and drop

Drag and drop is used to copy and move files and folders from one location to another by literally "dragging" them across the screen. "Drag" means moving the mouse pointer over the icon of the item you wish to select, pressing the left (or sometimes right) mouse button down to highlight it, and while keeping the button depressed, move the mouse and watch the selected objects move on screen.

Drop Means Letting Go
"Drop" means releasing the mouse button when you reach the destination folder. As you drag the icons, all valid destinations are automatically highlighted as you move onto them. To copy and move files using only the menus, see Win Copy/move files/folders.

Many Windows applications implement drag and drop; however, users can copy and move files between drives and folders at any time using the Explorer file manager. To launch Explorer, right click the Start menu and select Open Windows Explorer (Win7) or Explore (Vista and XP). Following are the drag and drop methods that can be used with Explorer. See also Win Explorer.

Drag and Drop - Right Button - Copy or Move
Dragging the icons with the right mouse button
is the more cautious method because you are
prompted to either Copy or Move when you drop
the files/folders.

Drag and Drop - Left Button - Automatic
Dragging with the left mouse button is faster
because you are not prompted when you drop.
Depending on whether the source files are local
(on this same machine) or coming from a remote
machine determines whether they are copied or
moved. Note the following actions:

                Action       File at
     Coming     Taken when   Original
     From       Dropped      Location

     Local      Move         Not there

     Remote     Copy         Still there

Drag and Drop - Left Button - Copy Only
Dragging with the left mouse button and holding
the Ctrl key down while dragging copies the
files and folders without a prompt.

The Destination Folder Responds

These examples show three files dragged to the Work folder with the left mouse button. In Win7 and Vista (top), the name of the destination folder is spelled out, whereas with XP (bottom), one has to be more attentive to which folder is "lighting up." Note how Explorer confirms the number of files being dragged: the "3" in Win7/Vista and three square outlines in XP. To highlight multiple files, see Win Highlighting items.