Disable COPY drag and drop in Windows Explorer in Windows 7

How can I disable copying files via drag-and-drop in Windows Explorer in Windows 7?

Note that I don't want to disable drag-and-drop completely nor in the start menu, just disable copying (duplicating) files when users drag-and-drop.


Windows doesn't provide a built-in way to change the default action of drag and drop, but I found a tool called Drag'n'Drop Editor which will let you change the default action to "move".

This doesn't disable copying (you can still hold Ctrl to make a copy), but it should help prevent accidental copies.


What: Prevent accidental drag-drop when you are trying to open a folder with a double click.

Why: You double-click to open a folder, but Mouse moves between the two clicks, Explorer assumes you are dragging a folder.

Solution: Save next 6 lines in a file named: prevent-accidental-drag-drop-in-explorer.reg, click on it to install it; restart windows; and now you will need to drag mouse a lot more to initiate drag/drop.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"DragHeight"="50"
"DragWidth"="50"

I work in a large company and we had the problem of accidental dragging of folders in a shared drive. Since there is no built-in functionality in windows to prevent it and I cannot use freeware or third party things, I created a script which runs in an administrative computer with access to the shared folder in question. The script opens an invisible MS Word session and creates a file in the shared folder with a name that places it at the very top if you list the files by name in Explorer. The script finishes but leaves the Word document open in that admin computer. If someone tries to drag the folder, they get an immediate error message telling them they cannot move it because that word document is open. They also cannot delete it. Windows moves the contents of a folder in alphabetical order, that's the importance of that word document having a name that places it at the top