Windows 10: Drag and Drop txt to Notepad won't work

Normally, if I have notepad open, I would be able to click and drag an appropriate file into notepad, like a txt file, and it would open in notepad. Now, when I click and drag files into notepad, nothing happens.
Any Suggestions.

:)

 

Notepad - Cant drag and drop to open txt

The files are in a directory on my C drive - not protected ones like 'Program Files'.

I can open them using File, Open or by right clicking the file in Explorer and clicking Open.

This applies to MOST files. I was able to drag a couple of files but I don't remember where they were located, and I can't seem to repeat that now.

 

Notepad - Cant drag and drop to open txt

Is someone at Microsoft going to answer this? It has been a year!

SOME files can be dragged to Notepad - others indicate that Drop is allowed but nothing happens when you release the cursor.

Windows 10 is just one problem after another.

Microsoft have made it so damn 'secure' that nothing works!

 

Works for me. Maybe the association with .TXT files got changed to another application?

 

I appreciate the idea, but I was able to eliminate this as a possibility when I double click on a txt file and it successfully opens.
I know it may sound dumb, but I really need the drag and drop option to work. The reason has to do with another issue Ive run into, which is how finicky Win 10 is with Admin Permissions. 9 time out of ten, if I open a txt via double-click, make adjustments, and then save, it won't. It won't even come up with an error informing me that it doesn't save.
But if I open Notepad, and then navigate to the file via Notepad ctrl+o, I can make adjustments and save with no problem.
TXTs aren't the only ones that wont open via drag-n-drop too. *.nfo and other system based files won't open via drag-n-drop.

 

Worked for me to open Notepad then drag a file such as .htm from Documents into it. It did not work to drag a document to the Notepad icon in Windows Accessories or when pinned to the Taskbar like it did in Win7 when I had Notepad pinned to the Start menu.

 

I hadn't try drag-n-drop to a Notepad icon or anything, Im just referring to when I already have Notepad open like your first sentence stated, "Worked for me to open Notepad then drag a file such as .htm from Documents into it". Except, it doesn't work for me.

 

Just a thought, maybe your "open Notepad" process is somehow messed up? If you normally open it from the taskbar, check its properties there to make sure it has nothing strange.
Mine looks like this:

 

I have mine pinned to the start menu. But i too a look, right-clicking and choosing "Open file location" and then checked notepads properties. They matched yours.
Just for the heck of it I also checked Start>"All Programs">Windows Accessories>Notepad, but it took me to the same notepad shortcut as the start menu pin.
Im frustrated that notepad is acting this way, but I really appreciate the help you're giving me. Its actually FAR better than any suggestion the official techs gave me over at Microsoft Forums. I swore they were about to tell me to "do a power cycle, turn off the modem, and lightly burn some toast" as their next suggestion. All they seem to do is read off FAQ scripts. When I get back home this afternoon, Ill continue to search the inter-webs for further option.

 

I hadn't really needed the drag and drop feature for many other things, so I didn't even think to try other programs to see if it Isolated to Notepad, or if it's the system feature thats broken. Well I finally got around to reinstalling photoshop, and tried to drag an image into the Photoshop program, and guess what... Doesn't work. Worse, Photosop images and files can only seem to be opened through Photoshops "open" option. So, it definitely seems to be a system issue. Microsoft Forums and reps seem useless to this issue as all they seem to do is read off FAQs and FAQ based troubleshooting. I don't get it at all. This is a pretty fundamental, and big, issue.

 

By any chance do you have any third party software that would change the Windows normal behaviour ? . Software such as third party Start Menu, Stardock Fences etc...

 

So, two points regarding this.
When I asked Microsoft about this issue, one of their reps suggested uninstalling any "third party programs". I was dumb and sloppy and didn't realize they might have been referring to a program such as "object dock". I asked for clarification, but was rather rude when asking, and got no reply.

As soon as I read your post i thought "No way! I uninstalled it because it didn't seem to work properly on Windows 10"... But again, sloppy and dumb. Object dock was still in stalled. I uninstalled it and restarted my computer. I can now drag-and-drop files into photoshop, but still not Notepad. At this point I can't figure out if the Photoshop thing was a glitch and now it works, or if the Object Dock thing actually fixed the Photoshop issue, but not the Notepad.
Please accept my deepest apologies in regards to how rude I was regarding Microsoft. I wish they would have clarified, but it was my fault in not being more patient and considerate.

Do you have any further suggestions for the notepad issue?

Status Update:
K, don't know what the heck is going on, but I open Photoshop and I can't double-click OR Drag-and-drop photoshop files to open. I have to go through the programs Ctrl+O (open).

 

Anything that you've installed in your PC that are non-Microsoft are considered "Third Party" Software. You can try:

• Win+X->Task Manager->Startup and Right click on each item that is non-Microsoft and disable it.
• Win+R->msconfig->Services. Put a check mark on "Hide all Microsoft sevices" and click on "Disable all", Apply->Reboot
• Win+X->Command Prompt (Admin). Copy and paste into the command Windows the following and run:
  Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup&dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth&sfc /scannow&pause
• Try Drag & Drop to see how it goes.

NOTE: What we are doing here is trying to isolate the problem. Later on you can reverse back to the previous state once we find out what causes the problem.

 

So when Microsoft suggested "Remove all third-pary apps/programs" and just left it at that, thats I why I was frustrated. Without clarification, "Third-party Programs" could mean drivers, adobe programs, pretty much anything non-Microsoft. So to me it sounded like "it could be anything, so uninstall everything."
When you narrowed it down in your previous message to Stardock programs, it made a lot more sense and made me feel confidence in the suggestion.
But im not going to lie, idk if I want to remove "all thrid-party programs", because if I had any luck at all, itd be the worst of the worst. Even though we would not be removing/disabling permanently, if I remove/disable/turn-off all third-party programs, more than likely 1-20 more issues will arise as a result. So I'll give it careful consideration. But, without having a more specific idea of whats going on, I might just have to live with it. Please don't misunderstand... I do appreciate the help, but in one month I had issues with my printer drives, tried to correct those via instructions from Epson, then the printer itself went dead (took 6 refurbished units over 4 months to get a refund), then video drivers went coo-coo, lost two HDDs (one on the same pc, the other on a problem free pc), the replacement drive crashed within a month of those, comcast internet being out for a week, my network being all out of wack after having to do a modem and router power-cycle once the internet came back, my cars tire blowing out, and a few other things all in one month. and that type of crap happens to me every other month or so.
So I try to refrain from even sneezing in the proximity of my computer lol. Heck, even now I think I installed the video drivers wrong or something be cause photoshop and youtube have been glitching almost non-stop. Brand new, self-built $3k pc, only a month old, already having all these issues.

 

What I suggested above is to temporarily disable, not to uninstall them. I have tons of programs installed and once in a while I do have problem caused by some third party services/Background processes. So, to isolate the problem, I disabled them all to see if the problem was fixed then re-enable one by one until the problem occurs again then I'd know which one is the cause.