File Explorer Drag/Drop Icon Glitch (Version 25H2 OS.Build 26200.7462)

frierenthemage · Dec 14, 2025

Hello, I do not know where to begin. I recently reinstalled Windows, and have had this problem since. When I drag and drop an icon in File Explorer, it is a blank, white box. Sometimes the icon will be there depending on what I'm dragging and dropping, but it's still against an opaque background. I downloaded another file management tool, OneCommander, and tried dragging and dropping. There was no icon at all, which at first I attributed to the program itself. When I went to ask on their forums on how to enable an icon when dragging and dropping, I first used snipping tool to show an example of what I meant in File Explorer. When I did, the screen paused (as it does when using Snipping Tool) and the missing icon appeared only when using the tool. I went back to OneCommander and did the same, and again, the icon reappeared. I will attach files of what I mean and hope that anyone can help me. Screenshot (1) and Screenshot (2) show the before in File Explorer and OneCommander respectively, while Screenshot (3) and Screenshot (4) show the icon "restored" during screenshotting while Snipping Tool is active.

frierenthemage · Dec 17, 2025

Incredible that 50 people viewed this and not one was able to provide any help. This must be a doozy to fix!

Rollback_Jockey · Dec 17, 2025

I couldn't work out what you were on about, or what you're trying to achieve by dropping an Icon on explorer.

Ghot · Dec 17, 2025

The icon turns white when you break the file path (connection), to the shortcut's program.
You're not supposed to drag and drop shortcuts INTO File Explorer.
When I do that, mine turn white too. They still function (at least the one I tested with).

You can pin them to Start or the Taskbar.
You can "create" a shortcut to any program.
You can drag and drop shortcuts OUT of Explorer.

Edwin · Dec 17, 2025

The OP's icons don't look like shortcuts..., they look like the actual exe's.

frierenthemage · Dec 17, 2025

Ghot said:
The icon turns white when you break the file path (connection), to the shortcut's program.
You're not supposed to drag and drop shortcuts INTO File Explorer.
When I do that, mine turn white too. They still function (at least the one I tested with).

You can pin them to Start or the Taskbar.
You can "create" a shortcut to any program.
You can drag and drop shortcuts OUT of Explorer.

Edwin said:
The OP's icons don't look like shortcuts..., they look like the actual exe's.

Not sure if I’m replying correctly, but they are the actual .exe’s, not icons. When I drag any file- .exe, photo, .mp3, .mp4, this same thing happens.

Ghot · Dec 17, 2025

Ah... in that case, probably the easiest way to fix it, would be to do an In-Place Upgrade (repair install).
You won't lose any files or programs, but it will fix any Windows problems.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

LesFerch · Dec 17, 2025

Note that Windows 11 displays an opaque icon when you drag and drop an item. This can make it difficult to see your target, compared to Windows 10 which displays a translucent icon.

To get the translucent effect back, you can install this tool:

GitHub - krlvm/DragDropNormalizer: Normalize Drag&Drop overlay on Windows 11 22H2+

Normalize Drag&Drop overlay on Windows 11 22H2+. Contribute to krlvm/DragDropNormalizer development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

frierenthemage · Dec 17, 2025

Ghot said:
Ah... in that case, probably the easiest way to fix it, would be to do an In-Place Upgrade (repair install).
You won't lose any files or programs, but it will fix any Windows problems.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Hi, I did this and although it reset a few settings, it did not fix it.

LesFerch said:
Note that Windows 11 displays an opaque icon when you drag and drop an item. This can make it difficult to see your target, compared to Windows 10 which displays a translucent icon.

To get the translucent effect back, you can install this tool:

GitHub - krlvm/DragDropNormalizer: Normalize Drag&Drop overlay on Windows 11 22H2+

Normalize Drag&Drop overlay on Windows 11 22H2+. Contribute to krlvm/DragDropNormalizer development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Hello, I did this and while it did make the box translucent, it still appears broken. Attached image for reference.

LesFerch · Dec 17, 2025

Hmm, maybe a repair/reinstall ot the Photos app will help, although I would think the Windows repair install would have covered that.

Test with another local user account to see if the issue is specific to your account.

frierenthemage · Dec 17, 2025

LesFerch said:
Hmm, maybe a repair/reinstall ot the Photos app will help, although I would think the Windows repair install would have covered that.

Test with another local user account to see if the issue is specific to your account.

Hello, I tested with another account that I just created to no avail. Attached image.

Edwin · Dec 17, 2025

LesFerch said:
... the translucent effect...

I thought it was always like that! I've never seen any different!

LesFerch · Dec 17, 2025

Edwin said:
I thought it was always like that! I've never seen any different!

I guess you have something installed that's providing the transparency. I always have a vanilla Windows 11 in a VM to check things like this.

dacrone · Dec 17, 2025

im assuming SAB

LesFerch · Dec 17, 2025

frierenthemage said:
Hello, I tested with another account that I just created to no avail. Attached image.

While testing in a VM I sometimes got just a blank icon when dragging and dropping. It self-corrected either by pausing a bit or just trying a second time. After that it was OK. I tested with icons and thumbnails (i.e. I changed the view setting in Explorer). However, I'm testing with a folder with only two files, so I wouldn't be surprised if the problem is worse when there are a lot of files.

Do you still get a blank icon when "Always show icons, never thumbnails" is checked?

Edwin · Dec 18, 2025

LesFerch said:
I sometimes got just a blank icon when dragging and dropping. It self-corrected either by pausing a bit or just trying a second time.

You're right!
Very glitchy, whether SAB is enabled or not, or, whether "Show contents while dragging" is enabled or not...

Something weird happens when you press Win/Shift and then S though...

frierenthemage · Dec 18, 2025

LesFerch said:
While testing in a VM I sometimes got just a blank icon when dragging and dropping. It self-corrected either by pausing a bit or just trying a second time. After that it was OK. I tested with icons and thumbnails (i.e. I changed the view setting in Explorer). However, I'm testing with a folder with only two files, so I wouldn't be surprised if the problem is worse when there are a lot of files.

Do you still get a blank icon when "Always show icons, never thumbnails" is checked?

I do, unfortunately. Attached image.

Edwin said:
You're right!
Very glitchy, whether SAB is enabled or not, or, whether "Show contents while dragging" is enabled or not...

View attachment 157262

Something weird happens when you press Win/Shift and then S though...

View attachment 157263

This is what I showed in the original post, no idea why it happens.

LesFerch · Dec 18, 2025

frierenthemage said:
I do, unfortunately. Attached image.

This is what I showed in the original post, no idea why it happens.

It looks like a Windows 11 bug to me. Do you get a blank icon when dragging any type of file (or a folder) regardless of location? Does it make a difference if you're in a shell folder (such as your "Pictures" folders) versus a folder off the root of C: such as C:\Pictures?

frierenthemage · Dec 18, 2025

LesFerch said:
It looks like a Windows 11 bug to me. Do you get a blank icon when dragging any type of file (or a folder) regardless of location? Does it make a difference if you're in a shell folder (such as your "Pictures" folders) versus a folder off the root of C: such as C:\Pictures?

Yes, any file type on any drive (internal or external). Just made a test folder on the root of my C: drive and it still happens.

DennyZenny · Dec 18, 2025

So I believe the correct answer is that Microsoft broke the transparency effect of drag and drop during the development of Windows 11. So seeing an opaque white square is technically "normal" behavior (at least in Windows 11). The most likely reason as to why they haven't fixed it is because they've already created a new drag and drop icon system to replace the old one as shown in Edwin's attached picture in post #16. Unfortunately since we all know how slow Microsoft is with UI consistency, they'll probably fix this in 2326.

I believe if you look in the Windows 11 Accent Colorizor Github page, they have a fix for this in the parent page for that Github project (or whatever its called).

File Explorer Drag/Drop Icon Glitch (Version 25H2 OS.Build 26200.7462)

Member

Attachments

My Computer

Member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

♦ ♦

My Computers

Member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Member

Attachments

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Member

Attachments

My Computer

♦ ♦

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

♦ ♦

My Computers

Member

Attachments

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Member

My Computer

the green man

My Computers

Similar threads