Shoutbox

Say I open two windows each belonging to a different folder location. In order to move a file from one place to the other I chooose this file in one of those windows and drag it to the other window. The file will be copied to the 2nd window but the strange thing is that it will also remain in the 1st. Shouldn't this be like a cut/paste process? Why then the file remains in the source location?

This usually happens between different partitions/hard drives.

Because the file really needs to be copied from one disk/partition to the other, if it's on the same partition/disk only the partition table needs to be changed.

Like Ezra said, the behavior is different when source and destination location are on a different harddisk/partition.

I'm a fan of dragging files with the right mousebutton so you're always sure what will happen .

The default behaviour is as explained by Menthix and Ezra (and what you just experienced):
When you simply drag a file to a location on the same drive it is moved. When you simply drag a file to a location on a different drive it is copied. That is default Windows behaviour.


If you want to copy or move a file and make sure it does what you want, despite the location of the destination:
- If you want to copy a file, press and hold CTRL when you're dragging. A little + sign will appear next to your mouse cursor. This is the same as doing a copy/paste.
- If you want to move a file, press and hold SHIFT when you're dragging. The little sign next to your mouse cursor will dissapear. This is the same as doing a cut/paste.
- If you want to create a shortcut in another location, press and hold ALT when you're dragging. A little curved arrow will appear next to your mouse cursor.


Note that you can see on your mouse cursor what will happen when you release the mouse button:
- A little + sign means the file will be copied.
- If nothing extra is shown, the file will be moved.
- A little arrow means a shortcut will be created.

Thanks for the replies, and nice to know that it's the default windows behavior and not some corruption in my Windows causing this. And yes, the source is in the C drive and the target is the 2nd hard disk. So I'm fine. And thanks for those handy tips to be able to drag iin a cut/paste fashion to override the default behavior.