Finder "makes alias" instead of "move?"

Getting past the "rude" thing, it would work properly if you used the correct keys to move a file. It is not "Command + Option," it is "Command," while dragging and dropping.

As a newcomer to this discussion I don't think Riverside is being rude. Holding own "command + option" is a distinctly conscious choice, not an accident. I am a 20+ year Mac user and I am having the same problem with a file that wound up in the Applications folder due to incomplete instructions from a new app. I want it out. I'm happy to type my password to make the change, but every time I attempt to move it, the alias icon appears. It is a glitch that occurs under certain circumstances and evidently I have triggered them. I have tried unlocking the folder in the information window, changing permissions, using left-click on the track pad to move the folder (because it is inconsistent on the apple mouse), and restarting after all that. Nothing changes. It is my computer, I am the administrator and am logged in as myself. This particular machine has never allowed me to log in as a root user (even though I transferred the contents of my previous MacBook following Apple's instructions), so that option is not available. That there is nothing in support documents that addresses this issue is beyond annoying.

This may happen when you try to move system owned files or if you are holding down the OPTION and COMMAND keys while dragging the icon.

Sorry, but you did not state you knew how to create an alias. You stated that aliases were being created when you did not want them. There is quite a difference in meaning here. AND, there was no reason to sound rude.

Thank you Lanny. I tried all of those, but none of them worked. The issue was that I had dropped the file into the Application folder. According to another Mac user forum, Mavericks does not allow things to be removed from Applications, only deleted. Therefore, if you want to preserve a file in the Applications folder, however it got there, it has to be copied to the new location, and then deleted from Applications. The logic of that may be important to the engineers who made that decision, but it would be nice if it weren't buried so deep it is hard to find in Apple Support. I am wary of constantly copying files, because it is an avenue for corruption, but that's the path one must take if a file or folder is moved to Applications in Mavericks.