Windows 8 - can't drag files from Explorer and drop on applications

Question

I'm using leafletjs for a non-geographic application where a user can add Icons (markers) to the map and draw lines between the 'ports' of different icons. A port is simply defined as an x,y location relative to the top left corner of the icon viewport (icons are SVG).

I extended L.Marker to provide an SVGMarker class and implemented an onMouseOver function to detect when the mouse is over a port (within a tolerance) and change the cursor appropriately.

The markers are defined as draggable using leaflets' dragging capabilities.

Now I want to implement an onMouseDown function to start drawing a line when the user clicks on a port and starts dragging.

How can I override the dragging capabilities when my onMouseDown function detects I am near a port?

onMouseDown: function(event) {
  let nearPort = false;

  const { offsetX, offsetY } = event.originalEvent;
  const { ports } = this.options;
  for (let i = 0; i < ports.length; i++) {
    const currentPort = ports[i];

    // Calculate euclidian distance from mouse press location to the current port location
    const dist = distance(currentPort.x, offsetX, currentPort.y, offsetY);
    nearPort = (dist < this.options.tolerance);
    if (nearPort) {
       // TODO: Prevent marker from being dragged and start drawing line
       break;
    }
  }


}

Solution 1

OK, finally worked out what it is. Any applications opened directly from Explorer seem to be fine. Any applications opened from an application launcher anywhere in their history (eg: Launchy, Classic Shell start menu etc) exhibit the above behaviour. Running the application launcher as Administrator mostly fixes the problem, though it still occurs infrequently and I still can't work out why.

Solution 2

Sounds like the applications cannot hook into explorer.

Try to refresh the PC, which takes 5 minutes(don't forget to back up of course) and if that does not work reinstall. I know it is a sucky solution but it definitely is a software problem specific to you.

Comments

[Admin]

Not sure what to tell you - I'm running Windows 8 RTM and was able just now to drag and drop an audio file onto VLC (I started VLC first, it was just sitting there) and it worked perfectly.

[Admin]

It occasionally works for me but usually I just get a "no entry" icon when I try.

[Admin]

I just went back and tried it, dragged about 8 different .mp4 files onto it. When you try it, does the icon change when you're holding the file over VLC?

[Admin]

Yep, the icon changes to a circle with a line through it like a no entry sign.

[Admin]

Are you dragging files onto the Taskbar application icons?

[Admin]

This solved it for me. Very happy and without messing with admin accounts or the UAC (as other solutions propose), this seems to be more clear and effective.

[Admin]

I got here trying to drag media files from my smartphone internal storage directly to VLC. It only looks like any other folder, but apparently can't be used in this way. Double clicking opens a new VLC window and plays properly, but dragging and dropping will not reuse an existing window to play a different file.

[Trylks]

Well, you worked how to solve it in most cases, but I personally have no idea about what it is. Anyway, I don't need to know that, but I'm very interested in knowing how can I run the application launcher as administrator. ;) Thank you.

[Trylks]

Nevermind, I did this seems to be working now...