I've seen this as you describe it. I was lucky that I had backups.
Dave, your reproduction is accurate but I'd add a few items to clarify.

To start with, I use "Details" view by default to always list the details of
the files in the right column, I couldn't reproduce this with "Tile" view.

In step 6 below, in order to highlight the files with a highlight rectangle,
click and hold on empty space within the "highlight area" of the file. (you
must click empty space, don't click on any of the text of the details, if you
do click and hold the text, it attempts to drag).
I'll try to explain what I mean by highlight area...
If you select the file normally, an entire row of details (e.g. Name, Date
Modified, type, size, attributes) is selected and coloured (blue in my case).
The colouring is stopped at the end of the last detail (in my case it is
attributes). I'm calling the blue coloured part the "highlight area". Within
this area, depending on column width, there are blank spaces between the
details. Click on hold on these black spaces to create a highlight rectangle.

Hope that helps
Feel free to contact me if you want more info.
JohnM

"Dave" wrote:

I believe I've found a bug in Windows Explorer that I can reproduce reliably.
If anyone can get this to a QA engineer in the Vista group at Microsoft, I'd
appreciate it. Here's how to reproduce:

1. Open the Windows explorer browser (not Internet Explorer). Set it up so
that you that you can see folders in the left-hand tree view panel and files
in the right-hand list panel.

2. Create a new folder called "Test" and a subfolder below it called
"TestSub".

3. In the SubTest folder, create three text files. Call them "Test1.txt",
"Test2.txt" and "Test3.txt". Just to make the files non-empty, open them up
and type a single character into each (I typed "x") and save.

4. In the left-hand tree view, click on any folder that is not in the Test
- SubTest hierarchy.

5. Again from the left-hand tree view, single click on the "TestSub" folder.

6. In the right-hand list view, highlight just the files "Test2.txt" and
"Test3.txt" by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the cursor
over both files. The message "2 items selected" should appear in the
bottom-left of the window.

7. From the keyboard, click "Shift + Delete".

= Vista pops a message saying "Are you sure you want to permanently delete
this FOLDER?" (caps mine)

8. If you click Yes, Vista deletes the subfolder "SubTest", including the
file "Test1.txt", which was not selected!

This is bad. Any reasonable user in this circumstance would expect that
Windows will delete the last selection, not the entire folder containing that
selection.

I am pretty sure this is a new problem starting with Vista. I used to use
the technique above to delete files in Windows 2000 and Windows XP all the
time, and I have saw this happen in those OSs. With Vista, I have lost files
as a result of this behavior because I have the admittedly bad habit of using
Shift + Delete and OK'ing through the warning box. (Fortunately I keep good
backups.) Still, Vista's behavior here is, in my opinion, incorrect.
Someone should start a bug report on this.

Dave


----------------
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suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/com... e_management

I've seen this as you describe it. I was lucky that I had backups.
Dave, your reproduction is accurate but I'd add a few items to clarify.

To start with, I use "Details" view by default to always list the details of
the files in the right column, I couldn't reproduce this with "Tile" view.

In step 6 below, in order to highlight the files with a highlight rectangle,
click and hold on empty space within the "highlight area" of the file. (you
must click empty space, don't click on any of the text of the details, if you
do click and hold the text, it attempts to drag).
I'll try to explain what I mean by highlight area...
If you select the file normally, an entire row of details (e.g. Name, Date
Modified, type, size, attributes) is selected and coloured (blue in my case).
The colouring is stopped at the end of the last detail (in my case it is
attributes). I'm calling the blue coloured part the "highlight area". Within
this area, depending on column width, there are blank spaces between the
details. Click on hold on these black spaces to create a highlight rectangle.

Hope that helps
Feel free to contact me if you want more info.
JohnM


"Dave" wrote:

I believe I've found a bug in Windows Explorer that I can reproduce reliably.
If anyone can get this to a QA engineer in the Vista group at Microsoft, I'd
appreciate it. Here's how to reproduce:

1. Open the Windows explorer browser (not Internet Explorer). Set it up so
that you that you can see folders in the left-hand tree view panel and files
in the right-hand list panel.

2. Create a new folder called "Test" and a subfolder below it called
"TestSub".

3. In the SubTest folder, create three text files. Call them "Test1.txt",
"Test2.txt" and "Test3.txt". Just to make the files non-empty, open them up
and type a single character into each (I typed "x") and save.

4. In the left-hand tree view, click on any folder that is not in the Test
- SubTest hierarchy.

5. Again from the left-hand tree view, single click on the "TestSub" folder.

6. In the right-hand list view, highlight just the files "Test2.txt" and
"Test3.txt" by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the cursor
over both files. The message "2 items selected" should appear in the
bottom-left of the window.

7. From the keyboard, click "Shift + Delete".

= Vista pops a message saying "Are you sure you want to permanently delete
this FOLDER?" (caps mine)

8. If you click Yes, Vista deletes the subfolder "SubTest", including the
file "Test1.txt", which was not selected!

This is bad. Any reasonable user in this circumstance would expect that
Windows will delete the last selection, not the entire folder containing that
selection.

I am pretty sure this is a new problem starting with Vista. I used to use
the technique above to delete files in Windows 2000 and Windows XP all the
time, and I have saw this happen in those OSs. With Vista, I have lost files
as a result of this behavior because I have the admittedly bad habit of using
Shift + Delete and OK'ing through the warning box. (Fortunately I keep good
backups.) Still, Vista's behavior here is, in my opinion, incorrect.
Someone should start a bug report on this.

Dave


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/com... e_management