Disable Drag (not drop) in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane

I don't think that is possible to disable drag functionality for this pane. However, to avoid accidental drag and drop, you can adjust the drag sensitivity so that it takes a greater effort to trigger a drag and drop operation. By default, the mouse needs to travel four pixels with the button held down for a drag operation to be initiated. To make it harder to initiate an accidental drag operation, just crank this number higher.

How to change drag sensitivity:

Warning: Always back up the resistry before making any changes. To do this, in the registry editor, select File/Export. In the Export Range options, select All. Save the file to the Desktop. If something goes wrong, you can right click that file to restore the registry.

Option 1

1. Press the Windows Logo Key+R to bring up the Run dialog.

2. Type regedit.exe in the Open box and click OK.

3. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

4. In the right side pane, look for the following: DragHeight and DragWidth.

5. Right click each one of these values and select Modify.

6. In the Value Data box, type 100 and click OK.

7. Log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

Option 2

1. Press the Windows Logo Key+R to bring up the Run dialog.

2. Type cmd.exe in the Open box and click OK.

3. Type: reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v DragHeight /d 100 /f

4. Type: reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v DragWidth /d 100 /f

5. Log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

Remarks

• Both options will set the sensitivity to 100 pixels of movement. Adjust as required.

• The default value for DragHeight and DragWidth is 4.

Sources

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/04/10/9541813.aspx
• https://kb.cadzow.com.au:444/cadzow/details.aspx?ID=2391