Drag to taskbar stopped working after update from W11 23H2 to W11 24H2 (with LUA (UAC) disabled in the registry)

Dear Shawn,

Thanks for your reply.

You're explanation isn't correct.

It has nothing to do with different privilege levels for the applications, when UAC is either enabled or disabled.

As I explained in my first post, the drag & drop works if I bring the desired running application to the foreground manually, using the "Alt Tab" keys.

The problem is, that when I drag a file to the desired running application on the taskbar; nothing happens (with LUA disabled). While normally the application should pop-up to the foreground automatically when I hoover over it. This has always been normal behavior (regardless if LUA was enabled or disabled), but after the upgrade to 24H2, it stopped working when LUA is disabled)

Can you please ask Microsoft to fix this bug? (I'm certain that this is a bug, because If if this was introduced intentionally, then it should be the behavior with LUA enabled instead of LUA disabled)

The best workaround for me, is using the "Alt Tab" keys.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Ronnie

Dear Mister Privacy1

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

From your description, it appears that after updating from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2, the Drag & Drop taskbar feature is not working properly and the issue is related to you disabling the LUA (User Account Control, UAC) setting in the registry. This behavior is indeed not normal system behavior, but it is possible that Microsoft has retooled the security model in the update as well as tied the working mechanism of some features to the UAC setting.

Below is a detailed answer to your question, as well as possible solutions or temporary alternatives.

Why does UAC affect the taskbar drag-and-drop functionality

When you disable LUA (i.e. turn UAC “User Account Control” completely off), this causes the operating system to run applications with different privilege levels. the drag-and-drop functionality of Windows requires that both programs (the program from which the file is being dragged and the target program) run in the same privilege context. If UAC is turned off:

• Explorer and other applications may run with different permissions (for example, Explorer may run with system permissions while an application in the taskbar may run with user permissions).
• When permissions do not match, Windows blocks drag-and-drop operations for security reasons to prevent malware from attacking high-privileged applications via drag-and-drop.

In the upgrade from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2, Microsoft may have further strengthened or reintroduced such security restrictions, thus causing you to experience problems when disabling LUA.

From a product design perspective, disabling UAC (disabling LUA via the registry) is a setting that is not recommended or supported. This is not a standard user scenario, so it is likely not a priority for the Windows product team to address this issue. This behavior is more a part of the security mechanism than a specific “bug”.

However, it's not insurmountable, and there are settings or methods that can be tweaked to temporarily fix or bypass this issue.

Solutions and temporary workarounds

Here are a few ways you can try to restore the drag-and-drop functionality.

Enable UAC (Re-enable LUA)

This is the easiest and most reliable way, since disabling LUA breaks more Windows features (not just the drag-to-taskbar feature).

To re-enable LUA

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the Registry Editor, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Locate the key named EnableLUA.
4. Change its value to 1
5. Restart your computer.

Retesting Drag and Drop

Once LUA is enabled, Taskbar Drag and Drop should resume normal operation. If you are concerned that UAC pop-ups are too frequent, you can minimize the UAC setting (instead of disabling it completely).

• Open Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control settings.
• Pull the slider to “Notify only when apps try to change my computer (without using Secure Desktop)

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry or workgroups is usually geared towards advanced users, administrators, and IT professionals, and it can help fix some problems, however, improper registry modifications can cause serious problems. Therefore, please make sure to strictly follow the steps below. For further protection, make a backup of the registry before modifying it. For more information on how to backup and restore the registry ref:

 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support

Restoring Drag-and-Drop Functionality Using Third-Party Tools

If you need to keep LUA disabled, but don't want to lose the drag-and-drop functionality, you can use certain third-party tools to restore the functionality.

ExplorerPatcher

GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows

ExplorerPatcher is a small tool that restores the traditional functionality of the Windows taskbar and file explorer, including drag-and-drop to the taskbar.

ExplorerPatcher GitHub project address

Once downloaded and installed, you can do the following:

a. Right-click on the ExplorerPatcher icon in the tray icon.

b. Enhance the Drag & Drop support and adjust the taskbar options.

Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate and safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

I hope the above information helps and look forward to hearing from you further.

Best Wish

Shawn.Z-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist