Changing Windows 7 theme breaks drag & drop

[Perplexer]

Since TC is still supposed to support Windows 7 I am posting this here.

I noticed that if I change my Windows 7 theme, I am then no longer able to drag & drop files from Windows Explorer to Total Commander until I close and relaunch TC. From TC to Windows Explorer it still works. The same behaviour appears in TC 9.x and TC 10. Is this something that can be fixed?

[Stefan2]

... no longer able to drag & drop files from Windows Explorer to Total Commander until I close and relaunch TC.
From TC to Windows Explorer it still works. ...

Do you run TC "as Admin" ?






 

[petermad]

2Perplexer
I cannot confirm this. Can you be more specific about what you mean by "change my Windows 7 theme" - is that just changing the current theme or is it opening another theme, and are you using Aero, Basic or Classic theme? Furthermore are both TC and Explorer open when you change the theme or do you open one or both after changing it?

[Perplexer]

I am using my PC as an administrator and have UAC disabled. All programs are ran as administrator on my PC.

By changing Windows 7 theme I mean right-clicking on the desktop, selecting "Personalize" and then switching between one theme to another. I did a more comprehencive check and found that a switch between "Aero" / "Basic" family themes and "High Contrast themes" is what causes the problem ("Windows 7 -> Windows Classic" or "Windows Classic -> Windows 7 Basic"). Changes between themes within the families ("Windows 7 -> Architecture" or "Windows Classic -> High Contrast #1" or "Windows 7 -> Windows 7 Basic") does not cause the problem.

Basically a change of the tick "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" while TC is open is what breaks drag & drop functionality. You can find that under Control Panel -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced tab -> Perfromance: Settings -> Visual Effects tab (at the very bottom).

Total Commander is already open when the theme change occurs. Drag & drop works in any theme, as long as the theme family change doesn't occur while TC itself is open. If it is open during the change, drag & drop will stop working and to regain it, TC will need to be restarted.

I have confirmed the same behaviour on two different Windows 7 computers.

[petermad]

I am using my PC as an administrator

That can be done in several ways. Question: do you see a ^ sign to the right of your user name in TC's Title bar? - that will indicate whether TC is running with elevated rights. If you run TC with elevated rights you will not be able to drag&drop from Explorer to TC (unless you are using the Systems "Administrator" account which is usually not enabled for login - see for example https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293 )

[Perplexer]

petermad, you're getting off-topic. This is not a permissions issue. I am perfectly able to drag & drop files between TC and other programs like Windows Explorer or WinZIP, but that functionality for some reason breaks if I happen to change the Windows theme from one which uses "visual effects" (Aero or Basic) to one which doesn't (Windows Classic or Hight Contrast themes), or vice versa. I believe this must be a bug somewhere.

[Horst.Epp]

petermad, you're getting off-topic. This is not a permissions issue. I am perfectly able to drag & drop files between TC and other programs like Windows Explorer or WinZIP, but that functionality for some reason breaks if I happen to change the Windows theme from one which uses "visual effects" (Aero or Basic) to one which doesn't (Windows Classic or Hight Contrast themes), or vice versa. I believe this must be a bug somewhere.

I don''t expect that changing a Windows theme will automatically detected by running tools.
How often you are doing such changes at all ?

[petermad]

2Perplexer
Sorry I cannot reproduce the bug, not when switching between the different theme classes either.

At the same time it is a known limitation that you cannot drag&drop between applications of different elevation - that is a System limitation.

If I run TC in elevated mode ("As administrator") I can never drag files from Explorer to TC - no matter what theme I use and no matter whether I have switched theme or not. Since you apparently are able to do so, we need to establish which kind of administrator account you are running, and if you are in fact running TC in elevated mode or not - hence my question about the ^ in the title.

[ghisler(Author)]

I couldn't reproduce it either. I tried switching to Windows classic theme and back to the standard Windows 7 theme.
Drag&Drop from the Explorer to Total Commander still worked after each theme change.

[JOUBE]

I noticed that if I change my Windows 7 theme, I am then no longer able to drag & drop files from Windows Explorer to Total Commander....

Aha...

I ...until I close and relaunch TC.

Aha, so "close and relauch TC" if you change your Windows 7 theme.

Joube

[ghisler(Author)]

It shouldn't be necessary to close and re-open TC, at least not in my tests. The user must be doing something differently...

[Perplexer]

I am doing exactly what I described. There is no different way of doing it. It is more likely that Total Commander is doing something differently.

In Total Commander go to menu "Configuration -> Options ... -> Display / Icons" and under "Icon size" section set "Vertical" to 0. Then change the Windows theme and try drag & drop from another program (for example Windows Explorer).

[petermad]

2Perplexer
I can now confirm the bug with "Configuration -> Options ... -> "Icons" -> "Icon size" -> "Extra space: Vertical" set to 0 - but you did NOT mention this prerequisite earlier

[ghisler(Author)]

This should be fixed in Total Commander 10.50 beta, please test it!

[petermad]

I can no longer reproduce the error under Windows 7 with TC 10.50b2 x64