My Windows 7 Peeve - Selecting and deleting files...

LazyLion

LazyLion

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Windows 7 File Management sucks.

I've turned on view all files and folders.
I've turned on check boxes to see if it would help.
I've enabled the settings to show me xpand the tree whenever I click on it.
I've tried to get into the habit of sending stuff to recycle bin rather than Shift-deleting it.
(so I can undo if it deletes the wrong stuff).

But still... every now and then I will select a folder for deletion... and then hit the delete key... and Windows 7 deletes the parent folder instead of the sub-folder.

This never happened to me in Windows XP. In XP when you selected a folder and hit delete, it only deleted that folder.

But Windows 7 has some odd behaviour that you have to actually click several times on a folder to make sure you have the right one selected, or you might just delete the last folder you were working on.... or the parent folder.

I was trying to get rid of a game that was corrupt, so I went into AppData and selected that Games sub-folder and hit shift-delete. But instead of deleting that folder it went ahead and deleted the entire AppData folder. So now I have to re-install Windows! :mad:

The first time it happened I thought it must have been my fault, and I had not clicked properly. But it has happened enough times now where I know it was not my fault.

What is happening is that Windows 7 is not properly selecting the folder when you click on it the first time. You have to actually click a few times to make sure it "takes"

This is not isolated to my PC or my hardware... it has happened to me on my kids computers and on my laptop. So I know it is not just a case of the mouse not clicking properly.
 
Turning on check boxes slows things down. (more crap to display).
When you click on a folder, make sure the folder name (that you selected) is displayed in the navigation bar (and not still the previous folder).
Your issue does sound bizarre though.

& moving stuff to the recycle bin is time consuming & annoying (especially on a slow PC)
I always shift-delete.

& get yourself some "undelete" software.
It's always handy to un-delete stuff.
http://recuva.en.softonic.com/ - works pretty well.
 
bubbatentoe said:
Turning on check boxes slows things down. (more crap to display).
When you click on a folder, make sure the folder name (that you selected) is displayed in the navigation bar (and not still the previous folder).
Your issue does sound bizarre though.

& moving stuff to the recycle bin is time consuming & annoying (especially on a slow PC)
I always shift-delete.

& get yourself some "undelete" software.
It's always handy to un-delete stuff.
http://recuva.en.softonic.com/ - works pretty well.
Click to expand...

All of the above
 
never had this issue. weird.
the backspace key going back in your history instead of up a directory really pisses me off though.

edit:
huh, what happened to the profanity filter?
 
Last edited:
I've also never had this issue.. Maybe you're not doing it right?

Are you running a legit copy of Win7? Maybe your hacked copy has some funny easter eggs that the releaser went ahead and added in for entertainment?
 
bullzeye.za said:
I've also never had this issue.. Maybe you're not doing it right?

Are you running a legit copy of Win7? Maybe your hacked copy has some funny easter eggs that the releaser went ahead and added in for entertainment?
Click to expand...

Ja, as I said in my original post I could understand that this was a fluke if it happened once or maybe twice... but it happens often enough that I know it is a consistent problem.
That was why I forced myself to start using the recycle bin, because I kept having to undelete folders.

It also happens on multiple computers, both legit and not-legit. So this is not isolated to one particular PC.
 
I got used to Norton Commander back in the DOS days. I then moved to Total Commander for Windows. For me, it's briilliant! Easier to use and more functionality than Explorer.
 
vinodh said:
I got used to Norton Commander back in the DOS days. I then moved to Total Commander for Windows. For me, it's briilliant! Easier to use and more functionality than Explorer.
Click to expand...

I shall second that.
 
vinodh said:
I got used to Norton Commander back in the DOS days. I then moved to Total Commander for Windows. For me, it's briilliant! Easier to use and more functionality than Explorer.
Click to expand...

Thanks ... that's a good idea. But I actually recommend Q-Dir. Give it a try. I'll also give Total Commander a try.
 
I've never had Windows 7 do this. Doesn't Windows also always present you with a dialog asking if you're sure before it does anything?

murraybiscuit said:
never had this issue. weird.
the backspace key going back in your history instead of up a directory really pisses me off though.
Click to expand...
Going back in the history is exactly what I'd want. I use left arrow to move up to the parent directory.
 
Garyvdh said:
Thanks ... that's a good idea. But I actually recommend Q-Dir. Give it a try. I'll also give Total Commander a try.
Click to expand...

I downloaded Q-Dir and it is visually much better than Total Commander. One thing that immediately is a problem for me is that I prefer Total Commander's right-click to select function. If you use single right-clicks on multiple files, all those individual files are selected without having to hold down ctrl. Can Q-Dir do this or is it in a option somewhere?
 
Never happened to me. Maybe use Total Commander (Paid) or FreeCommander(Free).
 
I wonder if anyone else has another problem I'm experiencing with W7, in trying (unsuccessfully) to apply SP1? The only way I could shoehorn W7 onto my first-generation Acer netbook with its minimal storage capacity was to use a stripped-down version, called Tiny7.

I was hoping that some generic W7 issues might be fixed with SP1 -- but SP1 will not allow installation on what it regards as an 'incomplete' version of W7? Anyone got any ideas on this?
 
I suggest you get an ISO with SP1 integrated and then use VLite to remove all the stuff you don't want and make a stripped down version for yourself. Also, when you get the ISO, hash check it to make sure you don't get some Windows 7 SP1 Black Edition Super Advanced Technologies blah blah version.
 
Garyvdh said:
Thanks ... that's a good idea. But I actually recommend Q-Dir. Give it a try. I'll also give Total Commander a try.
Click to expand...

Xplorer2 work perfectly for me. I haven't used the Win explorer in ages. Especially like the tabs, bookmarks, mini scrap and advanced filtering.
 
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