explorer bug

[Marco Almenta]

I found the following bug in Vista Explorer:

I opened a folder with three subfolders holding some video-files.
I selected and cut a subfolder and pasted it to another partition on my HDD.
While the moving was in progress I selected and cut another subfolder. This
subfolder was dimmed and I waited for the first process to complete.
When finished the first subfolder disappeared, the second one (the dimmed
one) moved left but was not dimmed any more, and the last one moved into 2nd
position and got dimmed.
I was astonished but I went on and pasted the subfolder to the destination.
It worked as expected and the right subfolder was moved.
It was only a bug in screen: the wrong folder was dimmed but the right
folder was moved.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:14:46 +0200, "Marco Almenta"

I found the following bug in Vista Explorer:

I opened a folder with three subfolders holding some video-files.
I selected and cut a subfolder and pasted it to another partition on my HDD.
While the moving was in progress I selected and cut another subfolder. This
subfolder was dimmed and I waited for the first process to complete.
When finished the first subfolder disappeared, the second one (the dimmed
one) moved left but was not dimmed any more, and the last one moved into 2nd
position and got dimmed.
I was astonished but I went on and pasted the subfolder to the destination.
It worked as expected and the right subfolder was moved.
It was only a bug in screen: the wrong folder was dimmed but the right
folder was moved.

This is the second time I've seen this sort of behavior noted in
Vista's Windows Explorer. It's a bug pattern I've seen in Nero
Express when drag-and-dropping items into folders, and the cause is a
mis-match between old selection ordinals and the shuffling of these
ordinals while the operation is in progress.

So you may see this...

1) You do a multi-select

A
B
C <- select (ordinal = 3)
D
E <- select (ordinal = 5)
F
G

2) You drag-and-drop selected items to A, and C is moved...

A
B
D
E
F <- select
G

3) ...but then F is moved instead of E because ordinal 5 is
now F after ordinal 3 (i.e. C) has vanished into A

A
B
D
E
G

So now you have C and F in A, where you should have had C and E in A.

In the case you describe, Vista's being caught out by a separate
operation. Windows Explorer has supposed to handle such concurrancy
since the transition from Win95 to Win98, so this looks like a
regression bug. Have you bugged it to MS?

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

Tech Support: The guys who follow the
'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.

 

[Marco Almenta]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:14:46 +0200, "Marco Almenta"



This is the second time I've seen this sort of behavior noted in
Vista's Windows Explorer. It's a bug pattern I've seen in Nero
Express when drag-and-dropping items into folders, and the cause is a
mis-match between old selection ordinals and the shuffling of these
ordinals while the operation is in progress.

So you may see this...

1) You do a multi-select

A
B
C <- select (ordinal = 3)
D
E <- select (ordinal = 5)
F
G

2) You drag-and-drop selected items to A, and C is moved...

A
B
D
E
F <- select
G

3) ...but then F is moved instead of E because ordinal 5 is
now F after ordinal 3 (i.e. C) has vanished into A

A
B
D
E
G

So now you have C and F in A, where you should have had C and E in A.

In the case you describe, Vista's being caught out by a separate
operation. Windows Explorer has supposed to handle such concurrancy
since the transition from Win95 to Win98, so this looks like a
regression bug. Have you bugged it to MS?

I do not know how to bug it to MS. Also the bug is only for what you see
dimmed on screen. Vista will move the correct folder, so your comment is not
really true. You should re-read my post again and check that i did not move
the folder in the meantime, just selected and cut the folder to have it
dimmed, and waited for the first operation to complete before pasting the
second folder.
thanx.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

I do not know how to bug it to MS.

Not sure if I do, either, once out of the beta phase.

Also the bug is only for what you see dimmed on screen.
Vista will move the correct folder, so your comment is not
really true. You should re-read my post again and check
that i did not move the folder in the meantime

I see yes, while editing it down. That makes it a less serious bug,
but the type of bug could still bite in other ways.

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

Who is General Failure and
why is he reading my disk?