Win 10 Feature 4 Klutzes and Screw Ups

Perhaps this feature already exists and someone can kindly enlighten me. I use a Bluetooth mouse (no dongle) and while I am mostly happy with this relatively inexpensive MS product sometimes my "accuracy" is not what it used to be and when working with a speedy pcie nvme m.2 ssd drive things happen quickly : ) I was either right clicking or left clicking who knows in the root directory and all of a sudden I see a window pop up and I thought I saw "copying" but it was over with in a flash. So I thought oh no what have I inadvertently moved from the root directory that I shouldn't have. I knew about where I was in the directory (this pic shows the correction after I found what I did):



..but it took a few minutes to find out that I seemed to have moved the "Programs" folder" (mostly portable apps or other stuff that I do not want to install at the moment) into the "ProgramData" folder. (I know I have all hidden files and folders showing.)

I think I know that I can record all keystrokes but what I really would have liked to have done was typed into start "What did I just do" and it would have spit out "you moved the Programs Folder into the ProgramData Folder you moron." I have crippled Cortana as much as possible without jeopardizing the operating system but if Cortana could have come back and said, "You idiot! Did you want to move the Programs Folder into the ProgramData Folder" I would gladly turn her back on : )

EdTittel said:

If you have a usable backup (or restore point) prior to "the fatal slip of the fingers" you could roll back to a point in time prior to that activity. Otherwise, you might want to post directory contents of the altered folders and let us forensically figure out what goes where. With a little elbow grease and some careful consideration you should be able to set things straight.
HTH,
--Ed--

>With a little elbow grease and some careful consideration you should be able to set things straight.

Thanks. Right. I do make images and restore points mostly regularly but it seemed in this case anyway (see original post) that I was able to figure it out and move the Programs folder back to where it should be.

>Otherwise, you might want to post directory contents of the altered folders

Right, again. The problem would have been at the time I had no idea what I had done though I knew approx. where I was in the directory so I was able to go through those folders until I found the moved Programs folder in the nearby "ProgramData" folder and I realized wow that does not belong there : )

dalchina said:

For undoing actions:

System Restore (if restoring happens to work AND you have System Restore on AND have a relevant restore point)

3rd party programs:
Disk Imaging- scheduling or manual- when is your choice e.g. Macrium Reflect (free)

RollbackRX (free)

Don't begin to consider whether Windows Timeline is relevant...as far as I can see. Different purpose.

- so only do that on an 'as needs' basis.

Thanks.


(I know I have all hidden files and folders showing.)


- so only do that on an 'as needs' basis.

That's a good idea however if only it were so easy : ) I seem to have a peculiar and unhealthy need to see everything that's there problem and I like to see the hidden stuff. Even so far as to put up with the ugly .ini files that show up on my desktop!




(I know I have all hidden files and folders showing.)


- so only do that on an 'as needs' basis.

Sometimes as a quick fix to a realization that you have moved something inadvertently, doing Ctrl+Z helps to reverse the last action such as Move, although you have to be careful about pressing it once ( or you may start undoing previous actions as well ) and whilst the explorer window is active.

das10 said:

Sometimes as a quick fix to a realization that you have moved something inadvertently, doing Ctrl+Z helps to reverse the last action such as Move, although you have to be careful about pressing it once ( or you may start undoing previous actions as well ) and whilst the explorer window is active.

>doing Ctrl+Z helps to reverse the last action such as Move

Really?? That works on something like what I did! I use Ctrl+Z all the time on documents and emails and text but I had no idea that that would also work on un-doing something like moving stuff around or perhaps copying stuff. Thanks for that. Can anyone else confirm that Ctrl+Z will reverse moving an entire folder say into another folder. TIA.

Yes it does work in Explorer as well. To get an idea about how you could use it in Explorer, just create some temporary folders with test files inside them and test it out by moving files from from one of those folders to another. Of course there are limitations such as if you pressed Shift+Delete on a file, Ctrl+Z won't work as that file would be gone forever.

das10 said:

Yes it does work in Explorer as well. To get an idea about how you could use it in Explorer, just create some temporary folders with test files inside them and test it out by moving files from from one of those folders to another. Of course there are limitations such as if you pressed Shift+Delete on a file, Ctrl+Z won't work as that file would be gone forever.

>Yes it does work in Explorer as well

That was AMAZING : ) Thanks