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Irritating Windows "Feature"

Ed

Philosopher
E
Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Messages
8,658
Now and again I need to clean out files. Happened today when I copied a gizillion pictures inadvertantly and had to delete them. Windows, when you select multiple files, makes copies of the damn things if you don't do it fast enough. I sorta felt like Lucy on the choclate assembly line.

Can this stupid thing be turned off?

Am I being clear about the problem?
 
I believe the problem is that while you select the files in question, you accidentally drag the icons(while the mouse button is down) a little bit, not enough to notice, but enough for windows to think you intend to copy them.

Atleast, that is what i've tried myself when i use windows machines, if that isn't hte problem, then i've never heard of it.

Personally, i just use bash for stuff like that, imo, vastly superior.
 
Stop using the stoopid Explorer graphical file hacker and fire up a DOS box. I promise that holding down various control keys and/or dragging the mouse a bit won't have any effect.

In case you can't remember the commands because you've been doing it graphically for too long:

copy: copies files
move: moves files
delete: deletes files

I know it's harder to remember than Ctrl-click-drag-drop, but that's life in the city of file manipulation.

~~ Paul
 
I have say 200 files to delete. If I do them individually I hilight, press del and confirm with a click Pain.

If I highlight a bunch holding control then delete is confirmed only once except that it copies the damn files.
 
Ed, it must be the case that you are jiggling the files a bit. Can you select the first one and then Shift-select the last one? Then just right-click on the lot.

~~ Paul
 
hammegk said:
In what directory are the copies placed?
Click to expand...

Same one.... thousands, all reproducing like mad just like that Peter Weller movie ......


arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg:eek:
 
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos said:
Ed, it must be the case that you are jiggling the files a bit. Can you select the first one and then Shift-select the last one? Then just right-click on the lot.

~~ Paul
Click to expand...

I don't think jiggling. Happens every time. Shift-select is a good one, never knew that but it only works if they are sequential.
 
If you're having to select lots of files at once, right-click, draw a box around them with the mouse, hit Delete.
It also sounds like your mouse is responding too fast.Go into the mouse settings (probably in Control Panel) and slow down the double-click and/or pointer speeds.
 
Folks, what the hell is he seeing? I just used Explorer to select a bunch of files in the temp directory and delete them. No muss, no fuss.

I do have my mouse set to select on linger, if that makes any difference.

Sophia said:
If you're having to select lots of files at once, right-click, draw a box around them with the mouse, hit Delete.
Click to expand...
Huh?

~~ Paul
 
Any known viruses do this? Why would an oversensitive mouse have anything to do with this "autocopy feature"?

It isn't an application program backing things up is it? :confused:
 
Wetware problem.

Select+Control+Drag=Copy of file. Works exactly as intended.

If you see the little + sign attached to your cursor, release the Control button.

Slow down. Should solve the problem.
 
Last edited:
Ed said:
I don't think jiggling. Happens every time. Shift-select is a good one, never knew that but it only works if they are sequential.
Click to expand...
Sort by modification date. Then they're sequential. Select the first one. Shift-select the last one. Press delete. Try to repeat the process without error :)

It's pretty easy to use keys for file control in explorer too. Once you learn keyboard shortcuts for things, you can do everything a lot faster - and often without having to actually look at the screen!
 
Pyrrho said:
Select+Control+Drag=Copy of file. Works exactly as intended.
Click to expand...
But if he just jiggled the files a little, it would try to copy them into the same folder, which does nothing.

Ed said:
Same one.... thousands, all reproducing like mad just like that Peter Weller movie
Click to expand...
It copies the files into the same folder? That's not possible.

This is starting to sound freakish.

~~ Paul
 
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