A drop zone that appears when you need it. Drag a file, give the mouse a quick shake, and a small shelf pops up to hold it while you go find where it belongs.
Moving files on Windows often means juggling two Explorer windows, or dragging something halfway across the screen only to realize the destination isn't open yet. DropMyShelf gives you a place to put things down for a moment:
- Start dragging a file, a folder, an image from a web page, some text or a link.
- Shake the mouse left and right. A shelf appears right next to the cursor.
- Drop it on the shelf, then take your time: open the right folder, switch apps, collect more files.
- Drag the shelf to where everything should go. Done.
No window to keep open, no hotkey to remember. It stays out of the way in the notification area until you shake.
- Shelves that follow your workflow. Collect files from several places onto one shelf, then move them all in a single drag, or click the stack to see each file and take them out one by one.
- Works with more than files. Images dragged from a browser are saved as real image files,
not links. Text and URLs become
.txtand.urlfiles you can drop anywhere. - A short memory. Closed shelves go into a history (3 to 50, your choice), so you can reopen the files you set aside earlier with one click from the tray icon.
- Stays out of the way. The shelf never steals focus from the app you're dragging from, and DropMyShelf can start with Windows.
- Updates itself. New versions are announced once and install in one click, after checking the download against the checksum GitHub publishes.
- Nothing is moved behind your back. A shelf only holds references to your files; nothing is copied or deleted until you drag it somewhere yourself.
A shelf collects your files; click it to see and drag each one.
The DropMyShelf window, from the tray icon: open and recent shelves, one click to bring them back.
- Download
DropMyShelf-Setup-<version>.exefrom the latest release. - Run it. No admin rights and no .NET install needed (Windows 10/11, 64-bit).
- Drag any file and shake the mouse.
The tray icon is where everything else lives: left-click it to see your open and recent shelves, right-click it for settings.
- Privacy. DropMyShelf works entirely on your PC. The only network requests are a daily, anonymous check of this repository's latest release (which you can turn off from the tray menu) and downloading images you drop from websites. See the privacy policy.
- Where things are kept. Images, text and links dropped from other apps are saved to
%TEMP%\DropMyShelf. History and settings live in%APPDATA%\DropMyShelf. Uninstalling removes both. - Smart App Control. DropMyShelf isn't code-signed yet, so on PCs where Windows' Smart App Control is on, Windows may block the installer or an automatic update. DropMyShelf tells you when that happens and links to the release page.
- Known limitation. The shake is detected whenever the left mouse button is held, so it can occasionally trigger while selecting text or moving a window. Windows offers no reliable way to tell that a file drag is in progress. Closing the shelf is one click, and an empty shelf closes by itself when you let go.
Requires the .NET 8 SDK.
dotnet build -c Release
To build the installer you also need Inno Setup 6 (winget install JRSoftware.InnoSetup):
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File installer\build-installer.ps1
This produces dist\DropMyShelf-Setup-<version>.exe, with the version taken from <Version> in
DropMyShelf.csproj. Releases are published as v<version> tags with that installer attached, which
is what the in-app updater looks for.
The images in docs/ are rendered from DropMyShelf's real windows with sample files, so they can be
regenerated after a UI change (the second step needs Python with Pillow):
dotnet run --project tools\screenshots -c Release -- docs %TEMP%\dropmyshelf-sprites
python tools\make_demo_gif.py %TEMP%\dropmyshelf-sprites docs\demo.gif
The Microsoft Store material in store/ (screenshots, logos, poster and the 1920x1080 trailer) is
generated the same way by tools\make_store_screenshots.py, tools\make_logo_png.py and
tools\make_trailer.py (the trailer also needs FFmpeg: winget install Gyan.FFmpeg.Essentials).
DropMyShelf is free for personal and other noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. You're welcome to use it, modify it and share it, as long as you credit the author by keeping the license and this notice:
Required Notice: Copyright (c) 2026 JohanRouyer (https://github.com/JohanRouyer/DropMyShelf)
Commercial use isn't allowed. If you'd like to use DropMyShelf commercially, open an issue to get in touch.