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Prevent Windows from Making Copies While Control-Clicking
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:15 AM on May 10, 2008
You've just finished carefully control-selecting all those files you need to move off your desktop and into a container folder, and then, one hand slip later, you have twice as many to deal with. The How-To Geek finds the fix, both inside Microsoft's Swiss-Army-Fixer, TweakUI, and in two registry values you can find inside the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key. Change DragHeight and DragWidth to somewhere North of 10, and you'll get far fewer accidental copies. Hit the link for a pre-compiled fix and detailed instructions.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Ortzinator
Posted 2:26 AM 10/5/08
This has happened to me many times, thank you.
Ortzinator
ixel
Posted 2:45 AM 10/5/08
You know, you could just press ctrl-z. Of course I'm lazy and overly cautious when it comes to the registry (TweakUI isn't available yet for Vista).
ixel
antman70
Posted 9:40 AM 10/5/08
just drag with with the right mouse button.
antman70
JiveMasterT
Posted 1:31 PM 10/5/08
Yeah this has happened to me too. The registry tweak is interesting but usually I just press ctrl+z.
JiveMasterT
kwehoo
Posted 1:42 PM 10/5/08
Along these lines are three related registry keys that, together with the two mentioned in this article, I call my "Fat Mouse" tweak.
These three keys increase the size of and decrease the speed of double clicking, making it easier for folks to double-click an icon, especially on a high-resolution (small icon size) display.
Add these lines to a .reg file:
; double-click height and width default to 4 pixels
; increase area to allow more movement between clicks
; increase speed beyond 500 msec to allow more time between clicks
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"DoubleClickHeight"="30"
"DoubleClickWidth"="30"
"DoubleClickSpeed"="700"
kwehoo
Slartibartfarst
Posted 8:26 AM 10/5/08
This is an interesting tweak to WE (Windows Explorer), but personally I regard WE as a crippled thing and so, several years ago, I avoided using it altogether by installing the freeware replacement 2xExplorer, and subsequently its successor, xplorer² (freeware and shareware options). Get it here: [zabkat.com]
If you need to spend time amongst your files and folders, then xplorer² will enable you to make far more productive use of your time. Try it on a "suck it and see" basis, and you will see what I mean. You can leave WE in the dustbin (trashcan) where it belongs.
Slartibartfarst
bagano
Posted 1:48 AM 10/5/08
ah, now that is useful, i sometimes use a graphical tablet as a mouse, and it slips easily. no more copy(3) of file.txt :D
bagano
selan
Posted 6:19 AM 10/5/08
i've done this more than once. thanks for the tip.
selan