Can't move items onto desktop

[Joshua Brine]

I am able to copy and paste items onto my desktop. I can right click and create a new folder or text file on my desktop, I can move folders onto my desktop, but I can't move files from anywhere else on my hard drive to my desktop. Attempting to move a file to the desktop does not return any error, it just does not move from its location. Any ideas?

 

[richnrockville]

I am able to copy and paste items onto my desktop. I can right click and create a new folder or text file on my desktop, I can move folders onto my desktop, but I can't move files from anywhere else on my hard drive to my desktop. Attempting to move a file to the desktop does not return any error, it just does not move from its location. Any ideas?

Welcome Joshua, exactly what are the names of files that your trying to move to your desktop? Can we assume that you are running as an administrator?

Rich

PS: it might help for you to fill in your system specifications..

 

[Joshua Brine]

I am running as an administrator and it's just all files that are not able to be moved to the desktop. I've created multiple text and image files and tried moving them to my desktop and none of them have successfully moved.

My specs are

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
6gb ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (8 CPUs)

 

[dsperber]

I've created multiple text and image files and tried moving them to my desktop and none of them have successfully moved

Can you please describe the steps you're using to try and "move" these files?

Where are they created and saved initially... in some data folder? Where do they live?

And then how are you proceeding to accomplish the "move"? What are you actually doing? Are you using Windows Explorer and right-clicking and selecting Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)? That just creates a shortcut on the desktop but does not move/copy the actual file.

Are you trying a drag/drop from a Windows Explorer window to the desktop? Are you using a left-click drag or a right-click drag?

Please describe what steps you're going through that are failing to accomplish the "move" you want.

 

[Joshua Brine]

I am left-clicking and dragging the file from the initial folder to the desktop. I have also tried cutting and pasting it to my desktop which does nothing at all as well.

I was trying to move it from Documents, but it still doesn't work no matter which folder I try.

 

[dsperber]

When I left-click and drag to the desktop, when the cursor dragging the object finally gets outside of the host folder and over the desktop, I get a flyout that says "+ copy to desktop". When I release the mouse button the file has actually been duplicated (i.e. copied) onto the desktop, and the copy actually lives in the desktop folder.

But then my source folder is on a different drive (H) than my desktop folder (C), so the default action is "copy".

In order to get a MOVE from H to C, I have to right-click drag. It still shows the same "+ copy to desktop" when the cursor reaches the desktop area, but when I release the mouse button the expected menu now pops up asking me to select move here, copy here, create shortcuts here, or cancel.

This is all as expected. No big revelation.


When I repeat the same left-click drag from a file on a folder on the C drive itself, when the cursor reaches the desktop area the popup shows "-> move to desktop", and when I release the mouse button the file actually does move to the desktop, getting deleted from the source folder.

Same with right-click drag, and on the popup after releasing the mouse button the "move to desktop" item is in bold, indicating it as the default action.


What happens in your case? What external symptoms result from your cursor-drag and then release?

 

[Joshua Brine]

An update:

- If I create a folder in my desktop and create a new text file in it, attempting to drag it onto my desktop does nothing.

- If I drag a file from somewhere else on the hard drive (for example, a random file from the install directory of a program) it will just delete the file. Trying to undo the action results in "Could not find this item."

Also attempting to rename items on my desktop results in a window titled "Rename" and it says "The file or folder does not exist." The name just reverts when closing that window.

 

[James Colbert]

It couldn't hurt to run a full Malwarebytes scan and an AV scan.

James