christabel
Member
The issue:
A) I have already sent Microsoft feedback about this, and upvoted all the other feedback I could find where others are similarly dismayed by this change - I have been able to drag and drop files from a sub-folder up to the address bar in my file explorer to quickly move them into a different folder until recently. ( i.e. if Folder A contains Folder B and Folder B contains Folder C, I could click and drag Folder C up to the address bar in file explorer and drop it into Folder A. This is no longer possible.)
B) I have scoured these forums, and the internet in general for any way whatsoever to force WIN11 to allow me to do this again (in the feedback area, a dev has responded saying they know - this is intended, but gave no other insight on whether this would ever be something that's fixed). I have rolled back to previous patches, and this just makes the file explorer no longer work appropriately, and fixes nothing. I cannot seem to find any solution whatsoever except just hoping that Microsoft realizes that taking quality of life away makes things worse. (If there are patch notes somewhere I missed that explain why they would take away an ease of use/QOL feature, I'd love to see why. It seems pointless and actively detrimental to the average user - especially when you see just how many people gave this exact feedback before this 'feature'/downgrade hit my OS.)
C) This severely affects my every day use of my own computer - and while yes, I'm aware there are workarounds that take more time and effort (opening more windows; copying and navigating back a folder to paste) - but why would I want that? The problem is that I've spent my whole life on Windows, and they're taking away a functionality that's been here for decades, as far as I'm aware? Why take more time and effort to accomplish the same thing? It's muscle memory now, and the fastest route between two points. Imagine if every room in your house required you to unlock and open TWO doors before you could get in. You can still get in! It just takes a bit longer. So why bother with that second door? Pointless downgrades are a strange choice - did the update to the interface break the core functions of the file explorer? If so, why bother with new UI, if it makes things less functional? This seems like they're valuing form over function, when that's not what's important to the end user. If the car is pretty but can't drive, why would I want it? Same with Windows. If it makes things take longer and be more tedious, what was the point in that 'update' at all?
D) I'm seeking any solution at all to this hostile downgrade to my OS (I cannot roll back to Win10 anymore, I hopped on the Win11 train too soon when it was early on, and I'm regretting it, now that I'm stuck). It appears there's no way to force Win11 to let me do this drag and drop via the explorer address bar, and yet when I was making and updating my account right here on this website, the option to add an avatar/header lets you hit 'browse' and pulls up a file explorer window... that has the old explorer interface/UI AND lets me use drag and drop ( - similarly, if you go through MS Paint, where it asks you to browse and put an image in, it also lets you access the old explorer interface in the pop up explorer window and drag and drop files/folders)! To me, this signifies that it is somehow still possible to access the ability to do these things, but Microsoft has blocked us out of being able to do so from all recognizable avenues. (My partner is, at present, trying to look into how the computer is accessing this older version of file explorer to be able to accomplish this, to see if there are any workarounds that can be made, but if some exist already, that would be ideal. I mean, I found a work-around online to force Win11's search to stop showing me online search results when I just want to search internally - that felt incredibly invasive, itself. I was hoping there would be a similar way to fix the file explorer issue that feels more 'bug' than 'feature', but I've found nothing after several hours of searching with every combination of search words I can come up with.)
Am I wrong in drawing this conclusion that the old file explorer is somehow being accessed/can still be accessed in section D above? Is there any way whatsoever to force Win11 to let me do this action again? I was even looking at third party software to see if any other file explorers have this capability. I used this function constantly - multiple times a day/on a daily basis almost, and it's a huge boon to keeping a well-organized computer. I guess I'm hoping against hope that someone out there has some sort of workaround, info on why this feature would be stripped, or a secret tactic to manipulate Win11 into being something other than what feels like malware at this point - I'm quite genuinely upset about this feature suddenly and inexplicably being taken away, and with absolutely no recourse at all, it feels like.
A) I have already sent Microsoft feedback about this, and upvoted all the other feedback I could find where others are similarly dismayed by this change - I have been able to drag and drop files from a sub-folder up to the address bar in my file explorer to quickly move them into a different folder until recently. ( i.e. if Folder A contains Folder B and Folder B contains Folder C, I could click and drag Folder C up to the address bar in file explorer and drop it into Folder A. This is no longer possible.)
B) I have scoured these forums, and the internet in general for any way whatsoever to force WIN11 to allow me to do this again (in the feedback area, a dev has responded saying they know - this is intended, but gave no other insight on whether this would ever be something that's fixed). I have rolled back to previous patches, and this just makes the file explorer no longer work appropriately, and fixes nothing. I cannot seem to find any solution whatsoever except just hoping that Microsoft realizes that taking quality of life away makes things worse. (If there are patch notes somewhere I missed that explain why they would take away an ease of use/QOL feature, I'd love to see why. It seems pointless and actively detrimental to the average user - especially when you see just how many people gave this exact feedback before this 'feature'/downgrade hit my OS.)
C) This severely affects my every day use of my own computer - and while yes, I'm aware there are workarounds that take more time and effort (opening more windows; copying and navigating back a folder to paste) - but why would I want that? The problem is that I've spent my whole life on Windows, and they're taking away a functionality that's been here for decades, as far as I'm aware? Why take more time and effort to accomplish the same thing? It's muscle memory now, and the fastest route between two points. Imagine if every room in your house required you to unlock and open TWO doors before you could get in. You can still get in! It just takes a bit longer. So why bother with that second door? Pointless downgrades are a strange choice - did the update to the interface break the core functions of the file explorer? If so, why bother with new UI, if it makes things less functional? This seems like they're valuing form over function, when that's not what's important to the end user. If the car is pretty but can't drive, why would I want it? Same with Windows. If it makes things take longer and be more tedious, what was the point in that 'update' at all?
D) I'm seeking any solution at all to this hostile downgrade to my OS (I cannot roll back to Win10 anymore, I hopped on the Win11 train too soon when it was early on, and I'm regretting it, now that I'm stuck). It appears there's no way to force Win11 to let me do this drag and drop via the explorer address bar, and yet when I was making and updating my account right here on this website, the option to add an avatar/header lets you hit 'browse' and pulls up a file explorer window... that has the old explorer interface/UI AND lets me use drag and drop ( - similarly, if you go through MS Paint, where it asks you to browse and put an image in, it also lets you access the old explorer interface in the pop up explorer window and drag and drop files/folders)! To me, this signifies that it is somehow still possible to access the ability to do these things, but Microsoft has blocked us out of being able to do so from all recognizable avenues. (My partner is, at present, trying to look into how the computer is accessing this older version of file explorer to be able to accomplish this, to see if there are any workarounds that can be made, but if some exist already, that would be ideal. I mean, I found a work-around online to force Win11's search to stop showing me online search results when I just want to search internally - that felt incredibly invasive, itself. I was hoping there would be a similar way to fix the file explorer issue that feels more 'bug' than 'feature', but I've found nothing after several hours of searching with every combination of search words I can come up with.)
Am I wrong in drawing this conclusion that the old file explorer is somehow being accessed/can still be accessed in section D above? Is there any way whatsoever to force Win11 to let me do this action again? I was even looking at third party software to see if any other file explorers have this capability. I used this function constantly - multiple times a day/on a daily basis almost, and it's a huge boon to keeping a well-organized computer. I guess I'm hoping against hope that someone out there has some sort of workaround, info on why this feature would be stripped, or a secret tactic to manipulate Win11 into being something other than what feels like malware at this point - I'm quite genuinely upset about this feature suddenly and inexplicably being taken away, and with absolutely no recourse at all, it feels like.
- Windows Build/Version
- Win11 Version 22H2 (OS build 22621.2283)
Last edited:
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 11 HomeAMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8-Core, 3.60 GHz16 GBNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
- OS
- Windows 11 Home
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- N/A
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8-Core, 3.60 GHz
- Motherboard
- Micro-Star International Co, B450-A Pro Max (MS-7B86)
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
- Monitor(s) Displays
- AOC monitor x2
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080
- Hard Drives
- C: SSD, E: HDD, F: SSD
- Case
- -
- Cooling
- -
- Keyboard
- Logitech G910
- Mouse
- Logitech G-903
- Browser
- Firefox
- Antivirus
- Windows Defender
