Submission details
Don't move drop-targets in Tree View of Windows Explorer
If you have a lot of folders nested in a folder, and you are dragging files over the collapsed folder... if you pause too long, the folder will "spring open". This is great, actually. But the problem is, if the "opened" branch contains lots of items, the window will scroll, MOVING the folder you were trying to drop files into. If you aren't paying attention, or your timing is just off, you'll end up releasing the mouse button and dropping the files into a completely unintended folder.
When "springing open", the drop-target... the folder you're dropping the files on to... should NOT MOVE. This is very simple usability. Unexpected things like your drop target moving out from under you unexpectedly should just never happen.
The solution is simple... though its implementation might be tricky given current APIs on the controls involved, I don't know... but it's to have Windows Explorer recognize exactly where the current drop target is in the window, and ensure that when it springs open the folder you're hovering over, that the position of the folder does not move with respect to the window.
Medium
Medium
Not fixed
Discussion (6 comments)
This would require the user to identify a target folder BEFORE selecting a source folder, so the interface would have to accomodate that.
Otherwise you're asking Windows to read the user's mind.
No, Thunderbuck, not at all.
WHen you drag a group of files from the right over a folder in the tree on the left, and you hover over the folder, it springs open. THis is normal, everyday, usual behavior for windows.
The problem is, if there are a lot of sub-folders, the tree view will scroll... moving the folder that is currently under teh mouse cursor.
If the hesitation wasn't meant to open the folder in order to drag to some subfolder, but instead was just a hesitation, and the usuer releases the mouse button... they're suddenly copying or moving the files to the WRONG FOLDER... the random folder that is NOW under the mouse cursor.
There's no need for windows to read the users mind or anything. It just needs to not scroll the tree-view when it springs open a folder to show subfolders. That's all.
This is a definite pain point. I manage servers and am often connected over remote desktop so there is a lag between moving the mouse and getting visual feedback. On more than one occasion I have dragged and dropped folders from point A to B only to see B move out from under the cursor after I dropped the files.
I like pmbAustin's suggested solution. Spring open and display the subfolders below the hover position and adjust the scrollbar if necessary but keep the folder under the pointer stationary. This problem happens mostly when using remote desktop over a relatively slow connection.
This has cost lots of hours! Really!
The proposed solution (do not move the expanding folder) should also fix the so called "Left Pane Scroll Bug".
hoopla_punta wrote on February 15, 2009, 7:28am
it should be slowed down a bit or instead cause the "spring opened" folders to open in a new window.
Good solution anyway! +1