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BIF
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Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:57 am

Okay, I was doing a "file/save as" of a PDF, with the intention of saving it to my dropbox folder.

While the "save as" dialog was open, I accidentally dragged "something" off of my desktop and let go of it over one of the folders on my C: partition.

I think Windows 8 actually copied something (left click) into one of the Windows 8 "library special folders" in the area of

Libraries\Documents
Libraries\My Music
Libraries\My Documents

Or any of the subfolders within or near one of these.

I would like to figure out precisely what got copied or moved before my next C: Macrium backup runs in about 30 minutes, but looking at the folders, it's not obvious if there are any new shortcuts or stray files that got moved.

Thoughts?
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sat Apr 06, 2013 11:19 am

If it was copied (not moved) it is probably "mostly harmless".

Any chance you can compare the list of files in those folders against an old backup?
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BIF
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sat Apr 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Yep, my thoughts too.

I mounted my last macrium backup to E:, and then I used Winmerge to compare both drives.

There were a number of changes that have happened to my C: when compared to the incremental that was taken merely 4 hours earlier, but it all appeared to be normal stuff that would typically change anyway on any boot partition.

I could find nothing that had a "sore thumb" look; nothing stuck out.

I'll reboot in a little while to make sure that I didn't do anything catastrophic.
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:13 pm

BIF wrote:
macrium backup

What are you thoughts on that product? Have you every restored Windows from a Macrium image?
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:27 pm

Assuming you have nicely organized stuff into subfolders under the 3 that you have listed, it should not be too hard to just go through those 3 folders and look for anything that looks out of the ordinary?

Next time, launch another Windows Explorer (Win+E), and then try to see if you can "Undo move" by right clicking on white space of that window.
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jihadjoe
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sun Apr 07, 2013 5:20 pm

Err, did you not try Ctrl-Z right after you did it?
 
BIF
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:49 pm

Yes fellas, I did do ctrl-z, and it "unnamed" a folder that I had just created and renamed prior to the errant drag-drop.

Sorry, I neglected to mention that. :oops:
 
BIF
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:53 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Assuming you have nicely organized stuff into subfolders under the 3 that you have listed, it should not be too hard to just go through those 3 folders and look for anything that looks out of the ordinary?

Next time, launch another Windows Explorer (Win+E), and then try to see if you can "Undo move" by right clicking on white space of that window.


I mostly don't use the special folders so it was pretty easy to determine if anything looked out of place. Yeah, I know; terrible end-user here. I also refuse to use the "Start Screen". I'm just stubborn like that. It's probably only a matter of time before Microsoft sends their own black helicopters to my house. They'll have to drag me away with me yelling "You're not the boss of me!!", lol :P

For undo, please see the post just above this one.
 
jihadjoe
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:13 pm

If it came from the desktop, then its probably just a shortcut that you moved. No biggie.
 
Arvald
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:11 am

BIF wrote:
Okay, I was doing a "file/save as" of a PDF, with the intention of saving it to my dropbox folder.

While the "save as" dialog was open, I accidentally dragged "something" off of my desktop and let go of it over one of the folders on my C: partition.

I think Windows 8 actually copied something (left click) into one of the Windows 8 "library special folders" in the area of

Libraries\Documents
Libraries\My Music
Libraries\My Documents

Or any of the subfolders within or near one of these.

I would like to figure out precisely what got copied or moved before my next C: Macrium backup runs in about 30 minutes, but looking at the folders, it's not obvious if there are any new shortcuts or stray files that got moved.

Thoughts?

Immediately after copying you did have the option of Ctrl-Z to reverse the operation.
As time drags on all you can do is search for it.
 
jihadjoe
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 9:41 am

Actually you can hit ctrl-z multiple times. Within limits, of course but two actions is certainly inside that limit.

So you did
accidentally move something from desktop to somewhere
renamed a folder

first ctrl-z will unname the folder
second ctrl-z will move your file back from whereever to the desktop

Obviously too late now, but it might have helped if you knew at the time.
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:37 pm

This is why I do my important windose file movements from Linux. I do not trust that toy cut and paste file system. I will do trivial stuff using it but if I have to do anything major I do it from Linux, uncompress stuff and arrange it to my liking. Mods for games are one of the things I am much more comfortable arranging from my Linux install.
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:07 pm

Ehh... it is just as easy to shoot yourself in the foot with Linux. Different weapon, but equally deadly when misused.
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Arvald
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:59 pm

Actually UNIX and Linux far more destructive far easier... "rm -rf /" for example.
 
BIF
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:41 pm

Fellas, I did it again Sunday night, d'oh!

But this is really a good story. :D

Actually, slightly differnt flavor, because this time I had accidentally dragged a subfolder folder from one higher-level folder into another higher-level folder. I saw my mistake immediately (and could even see the move I had accidentally done because this folder stuck out like a sore thumb and I hadn't yet clicked on another folder. I decided to take above advice in another post.

I opened another explorer window by WIN+E. Now in Windows 8, you have an extended "ribbon theme" at the top of explorers workspace, but there was no "undo" button immediately visible. Of course I know about CTRL+Z and could have used that, but this time I wanted to "see" what would actually be "undo'd" before hitting CTRL+Z. After a minute of fumbling about, I figured out how to add a command to the quickmenu/hotmenu. I did that for said "undo" command, and a small icon appeared at the top of my new Explorer window. Now if I float over it, a tooltip appears, saying "Undo move folder".

This was precisely what I wanted, whoohoo!

It appears to only be available in Windows 8's Explorer, so I'm good for my home systems. But at work we are still on Windows 7, and the Windows Explorer here seems to not have something that would tell me "what" would be undone.
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:51 pm

PenGun wrote:
This is why I do my important windose file movements from Linux. I do not trust that toy cut and paste file system. I will do trivial stuff using it but if I have to do anything major I do it from Linux, uncompress stuff and arrange it to my liking. Mods for games are one of the things I am much more comfortable arranging from my Linux install.


Going into an entirely different operating system to move files around seems... excessive. Generally in Windows I like to open both folders, and I always like to use cut and paste rather than drag and drop. But really, if anything goes wrong it's typically user error. Being in Linux isn't going to save you if you copy/move the wrong thing.

If anything, you're more likely to make a fatal error in Linux because it'll let you do crazy stuff that Windows will not.
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:33 am

Arvald wrote:
Actually UNIX and Linux far more destructive far easier... "rm -rf /" for example.
As have been mentioned somewhere else, "rd /s /q" is the similar nuke under Windows. Doing it under an Administrator prompt (for you Linux geeks: essentially under su root) is equally destructive.

BIF wrote:
It appears to only be available in Windows 8's Explorer, so I'm good for my home systems. But at work we are still on Windows 7, and the Windows Explorer here seems to not have something that would tell me "what" would be undone.
On Windows 7, Ctrl+Z is obviously there. However, under the Explorer window, tap on Alt, and you will see the menu bar that they try so hard to hide. Go to Edit, and you will see "Undo Move". So the Win8 one is nothing too new. ;)
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:46 pm

Arvald wrote:
Actually UNIX and Linux far more destructive far easier... "rm -rf /" for example.


Oh yeah. My favorite command way back in the day was FORMAT C: /U. Works about as well rm -rf.

I am root. Have been since about 1996. Oh noes you could ... sure ... but why would I? I have no problem being root and have never wiped my stuff by accident so you can take your safe, toy, OS and ... well, where the sun don't shine is where it lives.
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Arvald
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:35 pm

PenGun wrote:
Arvald wrote:
Actually UNIX and Linux far more destructive far easier... "rm -rf /" for example.


Oh yeah. My favorite command way back in the day was FORMAT C: /U. Works about as well rm -rf.

I am root. Have been since about 1996. Oh noes you could ... sure ... but why would I? I have no problem being root and have never wiped my stuff by accident so you can take your safe, toy, OS and ... well, where the sun don't shine is where it lives.

wow... O/S hater there...

BTW got you on using *nix by a few years, started really programming on a System V in '93 and before that learned on a Unisys ICON running QNX 88-89.

it is not the super users (root) you need the safe OS for it is the average Joe. Also there is nothing toy about a Windows system, much to be desired for sure but I like having my system do everything I want for my home use... and sorry Linux don't cut it. Thanks to Steam another few years maybe.
 
jihadjoe
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:42 pm

PenGun wrote:
I am root.


It's like going commando! 8)
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:18 am

jihadjoe wrote:
PenGun wrote:
I am root.

It's like going commando! 8)

I'd say it is more like disabling the safety on a machine gun.

(And this is coming from someone who vastly prefers Linux to Windows...)
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:58 pm

Arvald wrote:
wow... O/S hater there...

BTW got you on using *nix by a few years, started really programming on a System V in '93 and before that learned on a Unisys ICON running QNX 88-89.

it is not the super users (root) you need the safe OS for it is the average Joe. Also there is nothing toy about a Windows system, much to be desired for sure but I like having my system do everything I want for my home use... and sorry Linux don't cut it. Thanks to Steam another few years maybe.


Any filesystem that needs a mouse is toy to me.

What does Linux not do for your home use? I dual boot into windose to play games but that's it, well and to use my fancy Quadratone RIP drivers for my Eppy 3800 for B&W printing.
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:13 pm

PenGun wrote:
Any filesystem that needs a mouse is toy to me.

Who says you can only manipulate the file system with a mouse in Windows?
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:06 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
PenGun wrote:
Any filesystem that needs a mouse is toy to me.

Who says you can only manipulate the file system with a mouse in Windows?


The thread title is " Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:"

I'm sure there are key combinations to select and I guess you can do almost anything that way. I only use windose occasionally and learning keys is not high on my list of things to do. Why would I bother? I have Midnight Commander and I am happy to edit and move windose files where I am comfortable.
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:21 pm

PenGun wrote:
Flying Fox wrote:
PenGun wrote:
Any filesystem that needs a mouse is toy to me.

Who says you can only manipulate the file system with a mouse in Windows?


The thread title is " Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:"

I'm sure there are key combinations to select and I guess you can do almost anything that way. I only use windose occasionally and learning keys is not high on my list of things to do. Why would I bother? I have Midnight Commander and I am happy to edit and move windose files where I am comfortable.

Command Prompt? PowerShell?
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cphite
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:29 pm

PenGun wrote:
Arvald wrote:
wow... O/S hater there...

BTW got you on using *nix by a few years, started really programming on a System V in '93 and before that learned on a Unisys ICON running QNX 88-89.

it is not the super users (root) you need the safe OS for it is the average Joe. Also there is nothing toy about a Windows system, much to be desired for sure but I like having my system do everything I want for my home use... and sorry Linux don't cut it. Thanks to Steam another few years maybe.


Any filesystem that needs a mouse is toy to me.


You can do nearly everything you need to do in Windows without a mouse... heck, when I used to do desktop support it wasn't uncommon to boot up a Windows box without bothering to grab a mouse... the question is, why bother? A mouse is a convenience. It doesn't make it any more of less of a toy than any other system. BTW, dunno if you've noticed but just about every Linux distro out there supports the use of a mouse, and for the same reasons that Windows does.

What does Linux not do for your home use? I dual boot into windose to play games but that's it, well and to use my fancy Quadratone RIP drivers for my Eppy 3800 for B&W printing.


What does Windows not do for your home use? Why not just use it all the time, and then you wouldn't have to shut down and restart your machine every time you wanted to play games or print?

Mind you, I am not bashing Linux. My main laptop is running Mint, and I really enjoy it. But there is obviously stuff (games being an example, at least for now) that it can't do but Windows does. I have not seen many examples of the reverse.
 
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Re: Accidentally Dragged "Something" from desktop to C:

Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:34 pm

cphite wrote:
What does Windows not do for your home use? Why not just use it all the time, and then you wouldn't have to shut down and restart your machine every time you wanted to play games or print?

Oh I hate windose. Well that might be a little strong but after NT 3.51 I quit that cess pool.

Linux is so far superior it's hard to even conceive of any reason, outside of games written for windose, that I would use it.

So I drop out of X. Alt Ctrl Backspace, Make a capital R, hit enter and we reboot the beast. Chose windose from three OSs in a Debian boot manager and hit enter. Does not wear me out at all. I would go through a great deal more to not have to use windose.
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