Visual Studio does not let me drag drop items into it?

Question

Using Visual studio 2010 I got problems when double-clicking, for example a config file (*.config). Visual Studio would open but give me a error message about parameters. If

Answer 1

I'm using this easiest approach. When you run Visual Studio in Administrator Mode. When you need to drag and drop, just press CTRL+O to open up a file browser within visual studio, and use that file browser as an Elevated Explorer to do your drag and drop.

Answer 2

If you run VS as administator, instead drag n drop, do copy (either ctrl+c, context menu "copy") the file selection in explorer and paste (ctrl+v, context menu) on selected node in VS

Answer 3

This was driving me nuts. In my Visual Studio solution I have two Web Application which use IIS as web server so because of this I have to always start my Visual Studio in Administrator mode. After starting as Admin I wasn't able to drag and drop files from Explorer to Visual Studio.

Solution:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Shortcut for Windows 8.1 is ⊞ Win + X + A)
2. Type "explorer" this would open Windows Explorer with Admin privileges.

And now you should be able to drag and drop any file from explorer to Visual Studio

Answer 4

I had a similar problem but my issue was a bit different. I was trying to drag and drop a file from inside a zipped folder. Once I unzipped the folder drag & drop started working again.

Answer 5

I think the main goal of this question is how to add many folders and files to your project in a comfortable way. Drag and Drop files into your project is one solution, which fails under certain circumstances.

Another very easy way is:

• Copy the new folders and files where you physically want them in your project
• Open the project explorer in VS and click the button "Show all files"
• All the folders and files, which are now not part of your project yet appear white
• Select the the white folders or files, right-click and choose "Bind to project"
• Done

This is also possible, if you run VS as admin.

Have some fun!

By the way: I found this question, because I had the same issue with drag and drop. I understand the security issues, but it is an annoying feature.

Answer 6

On windows 8.1, change the registry key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLUA and set value = 0.