Create Single Click Desktop Icons

One of my holiday projects was to clean out some old client files, and the five bags of shredded paper are evidence of my success. In one of the files, I found notes from Windows 98 training that I did for a client.

Obviously, a few things have changed, but most of the tips still work. I had forgotten that the desktop icons could be changed to work on a single click, instead of a double click. Here are the instructions, modified for Windows XP.

Create Single Click Icons

Note: This will also affect the files in your Window Explorer folders.

  1. Double-click the My Computer icon
  2. Click the Tools menu, then click Folder Options
  3. Click the General tab
  4. Under ‘Click items as follows’, click ‘Single-click to open an item (point to select)
  5. Select the formatting option that you prefer (I don’t like underlining, so I selected ‘Underline icon titles only when I point at them’)
  6. Click OK

FolderSingleClick

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4 thoughts on “Create Single Click Desktop Icons”

  1. Debra, this applies to Windows Explorer, Save dialogs and other Windows areas as well. I switched a couple of years ago and prefer it. Selecting files without opening takes a little gettting used to, but by now I’ve probably saved 10,000 clicks!

    (I also recently changed to “Show common tasks in folders” on the top choice above. Useful for previewing photos and a few other things).

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