Feature suggestion: drag without gaining focus

qwerty · Post by **qwerty** » 2003 Jul 26, 07:42

I love 2x, I use it every day and I think I'll love x2 too (the 2 panes is the one major reason I use 2x; the other is WinXP's Explorer stupid media 'previewing' feature, which makes Explorer crawl, and sometimes even crash, whenever I select large .avi files. Btw, if anybody knows a way to disable this I'd love to know).

Anyway, to the point. The single feature I really miss in 2x/x2 (and which Windows Explorer has) is the ability to NOT gain focus when you drag a file. For example, Winamp has focus, Explorer is in the background: when I drag a file from Explorer, Winamp is still the active app so I can drop the dragged file directly to it (ie without having to drag to the taskbar button, wait for Winamp to become active again and drop it there). Is this feature possible, or does Explorer use some secret trick only MS coders know?

If this suggestion has already been posted, I'm sorry, I did use Search and find nothing related.

Post by **nikos** » 2003 Jul 27, 13:29

that's a trick i didn't know but it is not all too important
perhaps the easiest way to switch applications during drag-drop is to press Alt+Tab once while dragging, which will bring the previously active app (winamp) upfront, quickly

zippit · Post by **zippit** » 2003 Jul 28, 01:07

qwerty wrote:I love 2x, I use it every day and I think I'll love x2 too (the 2 panes is the one major reason I use 2x; the other is WinXP's Explorer stupid media 'previewing' feature, which makes Explorer crawl, and sometimes even crash, whenever I select large .avi files. Btw, if anybody knows a way to disable this I'd love to know).

Anyway, to the point. The single feature I really miss in 2x/x2 (and which Windows Explorer has) is the ability to NOT gain focus when you drag a file. For example, Winamp has focus, Explorer is in the background: when I drag a file from Explorer, Winamp is still the active app so I can drop the dragged file directly to it (ie without having to drag to the taskbar button, wait for Winamp to become active again and drop it there). Is this feature possible, or does Explorer use some secret trick only MS coders know?

Winamp playing,Why not just d/click the mp3 ? Works for me.You have to make Winamp the source for mp3's.BTW,how do you drop and drag a file to Winamp.Where do i drag it to ?

If this suggestion has already been posted, I'm sorry, I did use Search and find nothing related.

Post by **nikos** » 2003 Jul 28, 06:48

i think qwerty is talking about dragging a MP3 file from x2 like as if you were going to copy it somewhere and dropping it on winamp's window. That's similar to double-clicking as you said

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2003 Jul 28, 07:58

Qwerty, try the freeware PowerPro, from http://www.windowspowerpro.com/. This has a lot of tweaks.

What you want is provided like this: if you have multiple windows open, the moment your mouse pointer passes over any window, it becomes active.

Be careful- although this application is extremely powerful, the sheer number of settings is confusing--You could set them wrongly, and then you may not know what causes the trouble (the help is atrocious--you will be learning most of the tricks on-the-job).

zippit · Post by **zippit** » 2003 Jul 29, 00:49

nikos wrote:i think qwerty is talking about dragging a MP3 file from x2 like as if you were going to copy it somewhere and dropping it on winamp's window. That's similar to double-clicking as you said

Do you mean the Winamp folder in the inactive pane or the playlist of Winamp ? All this seems to be makeing things harder,not easier.Anyway lets see if qwerty drops by again.

Is Powerpro in competition with 2x.I'll stick with 2x,Thanks

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2003 Jul 29, 03:16

No, PowerPro is just a little helper. Try it! It gives you many more functionalities to the mouse. To name just a few of its facilities:

* Stay on top,
* Minimise to system tray,
* Atomaticaly activating a window when mouse pointer passes over it,
* Switching between windows
* Single click access to notepad, control center, command prompt, accesories menu
* Program your mouse to do any action (macro)

It is a powerful tool that supports x2. By itself, it has nothing to do with file management.

Mguel · Post by **Mguel** » 2003 Jul 30, 21:46

I use 2x a long time now... and have allway missed the feature qwerty points out. I work around it with the alt-tab but sometimes especially when you don't have your hand on the keyboard would be lot faster and easier to work ala winexplorer...

The utility that is mentioned to make active an aplication on mouse hover has nothing to do with the problem/feature qwert suggested.

Another example is dragging files to your compose mail windows of my mail client to send them as attach (not necesarily a file which is associated to the program like mp3 and winamp)

Best regards,
Mguel

MKairys · Post by **MKairys** » 2003 Jul 30, 22:49

narayan wrote:What you want is provided like this: if you have multiple windows open, the moment your mouse pointer passes over any window, it becomes active.

This functionality is also enabled by a setting in Microsoft's TweakUI Powertoy called "Activation follows Mouse (X-Mouse)"

zippit · Post by **zippit** » 2003 Jul 31, 01:45

Isn't this easier ? You can add options in C:\Windows\send to.
It's a hidden folder.

Have fun.

kev · Post by **kev** » 2003 Jul 31, 16:46

zippit u've got me intrigued... i have checked "show hidden folders" in folder options, but i can't find a folder at c:windows\send to... how do u find it?!

zippit · Post by **zippit** » 2003 Aug 01, 00:15

This shouldn't affect 2X.but i have W me.Sendto should show
up in either my Computer or 2xExplorer,and a search for files or folders locates it.
2xExplore is under view.options,show hidden "files"
When you right click eg:myfile.txt does sendto appear there ?
If you have XP i'm lost,can't see why it would be eliminated.

Morning Star · Post by **Morning Star** » 2003 Aug 01, 02:15

The Sendto folder appears under the windows folder in 9x based OSs (ie. 95, 98, ME). In NT based OSs (ie. NT, 2K, XP) it will be under the user folder. Eg. the default on XP is: "c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\SendTo".

Basically, you can just add shortcuts to program or folders into the SendTo folder, and those shortcuts will appear in the "Send To" menu shown when you right-click on a file from within explorer (or 2x/x2). If you "Send To" a folder, the previously selected file will be copied there, whereas if you "Send To" a program, that program will be launched with the selected file as a parameter...

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2003 Aug 01, 14:11

Kev-

Although MorningStar has pinpointed the locations, you can easily get these folders by CTRL+F in your partition where Windows works. You have already selected show hidden/system files, so it ought to work.

zabkat support forum

Feature suggestion: drag without gaining focus

Feature suggestion: drag without gaining focus

Re: Feature suggestion: drag without gaining focus

Winamp window

right click file

Win version