In Windows 10, it is possible to change the drag and drop sensitivity. This can be useful if you have a sensitive touchpad and want to make it less sensitive to accidentally moving or copying files in File Explorer and other apps. However, many users would like to completely disable the drag and drop feature. Here is how.
The main reason users want to disable drag and drop in Windows 10 is that they may inadvertently drag and drop files from one folder to another.
When you drag a file or folder from one location to another in File Explorer, it will offer you to move it or copy it depending on whether you are dragging it to another folder on the same drive, or to another drive. With the default settings, even if you drag a file or folder by a distance of 4 pixels and release it, the default drag-and-drop action will occur. Some users never use drag and drop for file management, so they are not happy with this feature.
So drag and drop is a very accident-prone action. Some users never use drag and drop for file management, so they are not happy with this feature.
To disable the drag and drop feature, you need to change the drag-and-drop distance to a really enormous value. For example, you could change it from the default 4 pixels to 2000 pixels, so it will be impossible to drag files for such a long distance (higher than your screen resolution) essentially disabling the drag and drop feature.
Unfortunately, Windows 10 does not include any GUI for this option, so it is necessary to apply a Registry tweak. Thankfully, it is not complicated.
To disable Drag and Drop in Windows 10, do the following.
- Open the Registry Editor app.
- Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
- On the right, modify both DragHeight and DragWidth values and set them to a huge number of pixels for which to drag items before dropping them.
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.
You are done!
Tip: See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
Note: This trick also works in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
That's it!
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Making this also prevents movig the program windows by clicling on its title bar. At least in my case, although I think is a general side-effect.
Is there a way of only disabling the files drag&drop effect?
Thanks
Is this only disable drag and drop for the touch screen, or disable drag and drop completely? Thanks!
this disables the feature completely.
it didn’t stop dragging ‘and dropping and I changed both to a hundrend
This method stops you from rearranging the icons on your desktop. Not good.
Better to enable the “undo” on Explorer’s Quick Access Toolbar and hover the mouse over it if you think you have moved something.