Windows – Drag and Drop File into Application under run as administrator

administratordrag and droprunaswindows 7

Whenever I have an application running (Visual Studio 2008, Notepad, etc.) under "Run as Administrator", I cannot drag and drop files from Windows Explorer into the application.

I've tried running Windows Explorer as administrator, but to no avail.

Is there a way to get drag and drop to work when my applications are under "Run as Administrator"?

Best Answer

The problem is tied to how security permissions work. The ability to drag and drop from a normal applications to an elevated one would break the security model behind UAC. However, I'm unclear as to why a UAC prompt isn't shown, thus allowing for a temporary elevated operation (much like any linux user experiences every day). This is definitely something that Microsoft needs to work on. What troubles me is that this problem is already old. Vista behaved the same.

There's 2 things you can do (one ugly, one annoying)

  • Ugly: Disable UAC. But you lose all the extra security it offers.
  • Annoying: Use another File manager and run it too as an Administrator

Why another file manager? Because you can't actually elevate Windows Explorer. Despite seeing the option in the context menu of the Windows Explorer icon and a UAC prompt being displayed, the fact is Windows Explorer will not be elevated.

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