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In Windows 8 I find I can't drag files to applications like I've been able to do for as long as I can remember. Example:

  • Drag MP3s to Winamp
  • Drag folder full of music to Winamp
  • Drag videos to VLC
  • Drag txt, reg etc files to Notepad

I have tried various combinations of:

  • Running Explorer as administrator
  • Running drop target as administrator
  • Taking ownership of drop target application's folder
  • Taking ownership of Explorer
  • Changing user account to administrator
  • Create a new user account
  • Lowering UAC level
  • Disabling UAC in GUI
  • Disabling UAC in registry
  • Running Explorer folders in a separate thread

This is the last straw if there's no known proper (ie non hacky compromise) fix for this. "Little" things like this combined are a productivity nightmare and if I have to relearn so much and configure so much to get basic things done with an OS I might as well just move to Linux once and for all.

nathanchere
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    Not sure what to tell you - I'm running Windows 8 RTM and was able just now to drag and drop an audio file onto VLC (I started VLC first, it was just sitting there) and it worked perfectly. – Mark Allen Sep 21 '12 at 02:58
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    It occasionally works for me but usually I just get a "no entry" icon when I try. – nathanchere Sep 21 '12 at 04:50
  • I just went back and tried it, dragged about 8 different .mp4 files onto it. When you try it, does the icon change when you're holding the file over VLC? – Mark Allen Sep 21 '12 at 07:34
  • Yep, the icon changes to a circle with a line through it like a no entry sign. – nathanchere Sep 23 '12 at 11:26
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    Is your ESC key struck. Try tapping it and then dragging and dropping. http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/15038-i-cant-drag-drop.html – Serious Oct 23 '12 at 07:43
  • Are you dragging files onto the Taskbar application icons? – mcandre Nov 04 '12 at 04:54
  • This solved it for me. Very happy and without messing with admin accounts or the UAC (as other solutions propose), this seems to be more clear and effective. – Trylks Feb 12 '14 at 17:23
  • I got here trying to drag media files from my smartphone internal storage directly to VLC. It only looks like any other folder, but apparently can't be used in this way. Double clicking opens a new VLC window and plays properly, but dragging and dropping will not reuse an existing window to play a different file. – Bob Stein Aug 14 '15 at 12:18

2 Answers2

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OK, finally worked out what it is. Any applications opened directly from Explorer seem to be fine. Any applications opened from an application launcher anywhere in their history (eg: Launchy, Classic Shell start menu etc) exhibit the above behaviour. Running the application launcher as Administrator mostly fixes the problem, though it still occurs infrequently and I still can't work out why.

nathanchere
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  • Well, you worked how to solve it in most cases, but I personally have no idea about what it is. Anyway, I don't need to know that, but I'm very interested in knowing how can I run the application launcher as administrator. ;) Thank you. – Trylks Feb 12 '14 at 16:22
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    Nevermind, I did this seems to be working now... – Trylks Feb 12 '14 at 17:24
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Sounds like the applications cannot hook into explorer.

Try to refresh the PC, which takes 5 minutes(don't forget to back up of course) and if that does not work reinstall. I know it is a sucky solution but it definitely is a software problem specific to you.

cmplieger
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