Drag and drop

[Bobbi]

In Win98, I can open any program by dragging the file name from Windows
Explorer and dropping it onto the desktop icon of the program I want.

In WinXP, this works only for some programs. For example, it works for MS
Paint, Wordpad, Foxit PDF Reader, Adobe Photodeluxe (photo editor), and
Windows Media Player.

It does not work for MS Word or Excel, Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Paint Shop
Pro.

I can't see any pattern in what works and what doesn't.

Does anyone know how I can get this feature to work with any program?

Bobbi

 

[Guest]

Hello,

Does anyone know how I can get this feature to work with any program?

You can't use this feature with any program.
Each program must support this feature explicitly.

Best regards,
Alexander Kutin
http://www.kutinsoft.com

 

[Guest]

A possible factor here is that recent versions of Word, Excel etc. don't use
standard shortcuts. (Why I'm not sure, but they use some special kind of
shortcut that's not found anywhere else)

You can try creating a standard shorcut to winword.exe etc. in the Progam
Files folder, and see if that works. In principle it should, as all dropping
a file does is to execute "program.exe %1" where %1 is the file's full
pathname.

 

[Bobbi]

Hi, Alexander-

Some of the programs (such as Paint Shop Pro) are exactly the same versions
I used under Win98 on my old computer. So why do they behave differently?

Bobbi

 

[Bobbi]

Ian-

Wow, you're right! I just tried your suggestion with Word, and it worked!
Amazing! Thank you!

Bobbi

 

[Wesley Vogel]

(Why I'm not sure, but they use some special kind

of shortcut that's not found anywhere else)

They use Windows Installer shortcuts.

Why? Probably because they can. <shrug>

When you open the properties page of Microsoft Office shortcut, you will
find only program title, not the actual program EXE, in the Target textbox.
Also the Find Target button and Change Icon button are all disabled (grayed
out).
----

<quote>
These are windows Installer's shortcuts. Windows Installer looks after
starting the application, usually after checking that critical
files/registry settings are in place (if not it starts a repair). Therefore
the target isn't your application. EG Word 2000 is
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{00000409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7}\wordicon.exe
(find targets work just greyed out as irrelevant)
<quote>
from David Candy
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...id+author:candy&rnum=1&hl=en#7f7ce30e7b765b35

Word 2002 is
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{901B0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}\wordicon.exe

<quote>
This behavior occurs because the shortcuts that are installed by Office 2000
do not point directly to the .exe file for the program. Instead, they go to
Windows Installer, which then resolves the path of the shortcut.
<quote>
from...
Office 2000 Shortcuts Do Not Have the "Pin to Start Menu" Command
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283293

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

A possible factor here is that recent versions of Word, Excel etc.
don't use standard shortcuts. (Why I'm not sure, but they use some
special kind of shortcut that's not found anywhere else)

"OFF2000: Unable to Modify Office Shortcuts"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=229396

 

[Wesley Vogel]

INFO How Windows Installer Shortcuts Work
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243630

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Wesley Vogel]

MsiProvideComponent
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa370356.aspx

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Malke]

Hi, Alexander-

Some of the programs (such as Paint Shop Pro) are exactly the same
versions I used under Win98 on my old computer. So why do they behave
differently?

Because Windows XP is a completely different operating system.

Malke