Drag & Drop (a file) to Desktop Icons ceased to open it, Replaced with "Move to Desktop"

Question

I used to be able to drag and drop files to some of my desktop icons (e.g. Notepad++, AstroGrep, etc.) to open them with the applications represented by those icons.

About a month ago (can't recall exactly when this happened), the system stopped supporting this feature and now it won't do it anymore. Instead, it would only "Move to Desktop" the dragged-and-dropped file.

Any idea how to restore this (very convenient) functionality?

Notes:

1. It's not that drag & drop stopped completely. It's only the open feature (within drag & drop) that stopped working for some reason.
2. This feature works fine on all my other Windows 7 computers.
3. Deleting and re-creating the Desktop Icons/Shortcuts doesn't help.
4. I found quite a few postings on "drag & drop not working on Windows 7 64-bit" but they don't really apply in my case because other than having lost the ability to open a file using drag & drop, copying & moving files using drag & drop still works.

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Additional information:

I used CCleaner to analyze (only! not "fix"...) possible registry problems and the the only area that may seem relevant is the following "Missing Shared DLL" in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\vsavb7rt.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\system.enterpriseservices.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\mscorrc.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\mscordbi.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\mscorsec.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\system.configuration.install.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\microsoft.vsa.vb.codedomprocessor.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\wminet_utils.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\microsoft.jscript.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\diasymreader.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\iehost.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\system.data.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\HP Health Check\Tools\UninstallHPSA.exe

Do you spot anything above that may explain this problem?

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Update 1:

Neither sfc /scannow nor regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll" (suggested below) work. System restore is not an option right now.

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Update 2:

I tried the following possible fixes suggested by the link @harrymc provided:

1. Click on any file with the left mouse button and keep the button held down. Now press the Escape key. Didn't help.

2. Disable the "Drag-drop" in Context menu options, apply it then enabled it again. Didn't help.

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Clarification: Dragging & dropping to applications while they are open still works. The only thing that stopped working is opening a document/file through a desktop icon.

Also, if I try to drag & drop using the right mouse button, the "Open" context-menu item is not listed:

Additional ideas?

Solution 1

I believe this may be a problem in the registry. In particular, I think this lies under HKCR.

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I would like you to check some registry data manually first.

WARNING: Editing the registry can be dangerous. You are warned!

First, fire up Registry Editor (run regedit.exe from the start menu search box).

Then navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ having the data exefile. Comment below and stop here if this is not on your machine.

Then also navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ having the data lnkfile. Comment below and stop here if this is not on your machine.

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If you passed the above check, then you can follow the following steps to attempt to fix the problem.

WARNING: Editing the registry can be dangerous. You are warned twice!

The following fixes .exe files:

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\DropHandler. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ, but may not be having the data {86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}.

Now, select "File" -> "Export" on the menu to backup the data.

When you've done exporting the data, you should try editing the data of the item (Default). Double-click on (Default), then paste the following value {86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D} and click "OK" (or press Enter).

The following fixes .lnk (Windows shortcuts) files:

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\DropHandler. On the right you should see (Default) of type REG_SZ, but may not be having the data {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}.

Now, select "File" -> "Export" on the menu to backup the data.

When you've done exporting the data, you should try editing the data of the item (Default). Double-click on (Default), then paste the following value {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} and click "OK" (or press Enter).

After that, close Registry Editor and restart explorer.exe. The easy way is to log off then log in.

By default, you can also drop to .bat, .cmd and some more file types. If you find that you can't also, find a working Windows 7 machine and copy the corresponding registry values.

Solution 2

most of the "drop targets" are handled by shell32.dll. you could try to re-register that file by issuing the command:

regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll"

then reboot and check if the problem still exists

just a wild guess, but maybe it helps

Comments

[Withheld]

Thanks. I tried that but it didn't help.

[Withheld]

I didn't use CCleaner to clean the registry. I only used it to get rid of unneeded files.

[Withheld]

Unfortunately System Restore isn't an option for me right now since I have installed way too many tools required for my work since then. This may be the last resort in case of a disaster and/or when I have time to reinstall things, but being unable to drag-n-drop to open is only annoying, not a show stopper.

[Withheld]

What are the side effects of this de-registration of shell32.dll? Does this apply to 64-bit Windows 7 as well?

[weberik]

well 'de'-registering will probably destroy your system if its even possible. thats why i employ you to 're'-register it, which should have no side effects at all :). it should work for 64 and 32 bit OSs

[Withheld]

Oops... sorry, I meant to write re-registration. :) So, if I understand you correctly, I can safely attempt to re-register shell32.dll without further side-effects, right? Or better yet: Is there a way to only check if shell32.dll isn't registered?

[Barath Bushan]

@Daniel , can you try running sfc , and see if you can determiner the issue , just see my edit

[weberik]

its safe, i tried it yesterday and my computer still works ;). there is no easy way to check if its 100% correctly registered. btw your "missing shared dlls" have no effect on your windows shell.

[harrymc]

But something happened which might be impossible to ferret out without System Restore, although the registry destruction might actually have been caused by one of your installed tools. Question: When you drag a file over the notepad icon, does the cursor change from having a "+" to having an arrow?

[Withheld]

Right now I am in the middle of work so I can't reboot the system. As soon I can reboot it, I will try per the suggestions in this thread: (1) sfc (2) regsvr32 . Answering your question: No, the cursor doesn't change from having a "+" to having an arrow.

[Withheld]

Just finished running sfc /scannow: "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." Rebooting after that didn't solve the problem. Going to try regsvr32 now...

[Withheld]

OK. I just tried regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll", rebooted and... the problem persists. Could that be caused by a Group Policy change by our IT department centrally controlling all our PCs?

[harrymc]

Try also the suggestions listed in this thread.

[Withheld]

Thanks for the link. I tried the 2 suggestions mentioned there but still no go (see update). Other ideas? Thanks.

[harrymc]

Do you have an enormous number of icons on your desktop? Have you installed any desktop organizer tool? (In any case, CCleaner is still a possibility if it cleaned out files from c:\windows.)

[weberik]

sorry im out of ideas... everything is possible, but a group policy change as the cause is not very probable ;)

[Withheld]

No, I don't have a large number of icons on my desktop. No desktop organizer tool. Weird.

[harrymc]

Yes, weird is the word. I regret to say that I still think that system restore is the only practical solution, unless someone comes up with a better idea.

[Withheld]

I just realized I've been living with this problem for over a month. Restoring to an about a month ago (could be earlier...) isn't very practical for me. Hopefully someone can come up with a possible explanation of why only the Open option disappeared. Once we have the explanation, the fix could be easier.

[Withheld]

Thanks! I checked the exefile\shellex\DropHandler and it is exactly as should be. Then I checked the lnkfile\shellex\DropHandler and instead of what you listed above {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}, I have {83D96563-DB11-42DF-92F9-32CE7BA54ED8}. Could that be the problem? I will try that the moment I can take a break from the current task I am in. Thanks!

[Withheld]

And... being curious that I am, I couldn't resist Googling this {83D96563-DB11-42DF-92F9-32CE7BA54ED8} value and, sure enough, it seems to belong to Altova XMLSpy, which is exactly what I installed on Feb 26, and this is more or less when problem started... I will report back when I can verify the change.

[Withheld]

Success! and by the way, I didn't have to restart explorer.exe (or logout) for that to start working. THANK YOU!!!

[Alvin Wong]

Oh yes, it is the problem of drop handlers (see my answer). Your answer in some degree leads me to my answer, so +1 for you.

[harrymc]

To downvoter: Why downvote? My analysis of registry corruption was correct, just that system restore was infeasible.