Carl’s Geek Notes

November 20, 2009

Windows Drag & Drop not working

Filed under: Computers, Windows Administration — Tags: , , — Carl @ 8:17 am

My Windows XP Pro computer developed an interesting problem… Drag and drop stopped working.  I couldn’t move emails between folders, change desktop icon position, tear out a browser tab, etc.  After a bit of searching I found a fix for it, based on this MS article:

KB274696

The basics of the article are correct; however, the steps are incomplete for XP.  Here’s an updating of the instructions:

  1. Start->Run, type dcomcnfg, enter.
  2. Expand Console Root->Component Services->Computers->My Computer.
  3. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.
  4. Go to the COM Security tab and click Edit Default… under Access Permissions.
  5. Verify that both System and Interactive are listed with Allow Access. If either are missing, add them by clicking Add.
  6. In the List Names From box, make sure that the local computer name is listed.
  7. Type interactive or system as appropriate (mine was missing Interactive).
  8. Click OK.
  9. Make sure that Allow is checked on Local Access for both users.
  10. Click OK.

Mine immediately started working without a reboot.

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