Windows 7 - Only allow single click!

[hamidazeez]

Hi All, I have several Windows 7 Pro desktops in an 2003 Active Directory environment. I am also experiencing this exact problem with all the Win 7 desktop. We do have GPO set and all of our XP boxes works fine with the settings applied.

The issue here for me, although the "double-click" option is set in the folder option, domain users are still forced to single click to open, launch files and folders. This is annoying to some users since they sometimes click into a folder/drive to start a search and when doing this on Win 7, would actually go into a sub folder that was not intended to. Since the "single-click" option is greyed out, the settings cannot be changed.

This post talks about settings the "Classic Shell" to "Not configured"... I have looked at the local machine policy and the OU GPO and both are set as "Not Configured".

Just need to find out if anyone else have gone through this issue and if the have resolved.

Thanks id advance...

 

[fishnbanjo]

Go to Control Panel / Folder Options. Select the Double click to open an item (point to select) option.
Click Apply / OK.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10117-single-click-double-click-open-item.html

 

[Scarpia]

I have exactly the same problem, and it is clear that fishnbanjo didn't read hamidazeez's question, because it's a stock answer that doesn't come close to addressing the question he actually asked.

As you can see from the attached screen cap, the "Single-click to open an item" option is greyed out, so is supposedly not available. In spite of this, and that the "Double-click etc." option is (perforce) selected, the system behaves like the single-click option is selected, i.e. it will open files when I just single click on them, when all I'm trying to do is select them. This makes the usual trick of click + CTL-click to select multiple files impossible.

I'm also finding it automatically selects any file the cursor is hovering over, which is very dangerous. I've accidentally deleted the wrong file more than once because of that. This one smacks of a "feature" in the best MS tradition.

Can anyone tell me how to fix the first and disable the second?

 

[Scarpia]

A bit of searching though another thread on this forum found the answer to the second. It's a registry tweak:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Mouse: set MouseHoverWidth and MouseHoverHeight to 0.

It's a sad and frustrating fact that, every time I update to a newer version of MS Windows, I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time and effort disabling features that MS have added which usually turn out to be maddening, dangerous or both. That's why I've only just invested in Windows 7. I was perfectly happy with WinXP (in spite of the fact that it was no longer supported), but was driven into the arms of Win7 because less and less hardware and software is compatible with XP. Come to that, I was perfectly happy with Win2K, but was driven to XP for the same reason, and with the same results. Hey-ho. Plus ça change...

 

[Ranger4]

Hi Scarpia, welcome to the Forum.

Have a look through this MS website & see if that helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/266738

 

[margrave]

My MouseHoverHeight and MouseHoverWidth are set to 4 and I have no problems.
So I'm not understanding the problem nor the fix.

 

[Scarpia]

Hi Ranger4

Thanks for the quick comeback. Alas, your suggestion didn't help.

Of the six diagnostic methods suggested on https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/266738:

Method 1: I slowed the double click speed right down to slowest with no improvement.
Method 2: The problem affects everything I tried, although not consistently. It also affects file selection even if no programs are running, and none have been started and then closed since last boot.
Method 3: The problem is exactly the same in safe mode.
Method 4: I could find no mention of Intellipoint on the page at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/266738, so got nowhere with this one.
Method 5: The problem applies to two different pointing devices (a standard mouse and a Wacom Intuos 3 graphics tablet)
Method 6: Both pointing devices worked fine under Windows XP running on a different motherboard

What none of this explains is why the Single-click option is apparently disabled.

 

[Ranger4]

Hi Scarpia, thanks for getting back. Sorry the reference did not help.

I am not familiar with the Wacom tablet. Are you using the mouse that comes with it, if so, does the Wacom come with software & necessary drivers for it.

It would seem that as the Double Click in folder options is greyed out Wacom may have reset this. You could see if there are later drivers available for it that might suit Windows 7.

 

[Scarpia]

Hi Ranger4

OK, I found the solution at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/555140. The problem was that a few days ago I enforced the Classic Shell (amongst other things) through the Group Policies editor, and the problem subsequently appeared. I did a web search for the symptoms, which brought up this bug in the Classic Shell, so I changed the Group Policy back to "Not Configured". What I hadn't clocked was that that is not enough, because it leaves the corresponding registry entry as it was (still set to '1' in this case). I could have gone back into GPedit to force it the other way, but it was easier to edit the registry directly following the procedure in KB555140, which did the trick.

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks for getting back & glad to hear you have it fixed, well done.