Question regarding sudden loss of ability to drag anything.

DZThorne · 16 Jun 2018

I have Windows 10 on my HP desktop. I was rearranging two internet tabs on Microsoft Edge to more easily switch between the two. Immediately following this action, I lost the ability to move tabs or drag anything on my computer.

If I click and drag any internet tabs, files/tabs upon my desktop screen, or files within other destinations or folders absolutely nothing happens. I click and drag and there is no reaction from the computer. I can still click and open things no problem, and save as to put something in a location. But cannot drag anything period.

This happened about three days. I have not experienced this before, and did not see any threads that were the same issue on the couple pages I checked. The few threads I did search were partial loss rather than full loss of the dragging mechanism.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Bree · 16 Jun 2018

A restart can often fix things like this. Click Start and select Restart on the power button.

If you have fast startup turned on a Shut down is not sufficient. Fast startup is a form of hibernation so some settings can be retained. Only a Restart will do a full start from cold.

DZThorne · 16 Jun 2018

That actually helped. I turned off fast startup and reset it. Allowed the computer to remain off for a few moments and turned it on. No issue currently. Hopefully I do not have the same issue again soon. At least this was an easier fix than I feared at first.

Thank you Bree, it is greatly appreciated.

D.Z. Thorne

f14tomcat · 16 Jun 2018

Interesting trick with shutdown and the hibernation file. While it's true a normal shutdown with it enabled will retain data on power up, holding the shift key down when doing a shutdown will bypass the system writing to the hiberfil.sys, and give a clean power up.

But you don't need to disable this otherwise useful feature to do a full shutdown. Instead, hold down Shift as you choose Shut Down from the power menu. That forces Windows to do a cold startup, ignoring the hibernation file, the next time you restart.

Windows 10 tip: Startup and shutdown secrets | ZDNet

DZThorne · 16 Jun 2018

That is good knowledge to have. I will definitely keep this in mind. Appreciate the advice.