Fix Mouse Double-Clicking When You click Once
For the past few days I have experienced a rather strange issue on my computer that made the mouse double-click sometimes when I single left-clicked it.
While that was not a problem all the time, it sometimes broke my workflow, for instance when trying to select a folder or deleting tags here in WordPress. The result was a different action than intended, the folder for instance was opened instead of selected.
I suspected that it could be caused by two things. First a setting or driver issue, and second a hardware fault in the mouse's micro-controller. Hoping that the issue fell into the first category, I began my research.
First thing I remembered was that it was possible to change the double-click speed rate in the mouse control panel.
You can open the control panel in the following way: Use Windows-Pause to open the Control Panel, select Control Panel Home on the window that opens, and there mouse from the list of available settings.
After experimenting with the slowest double-click speed available I noticed that the issue was not caused by this setting. Next thing I checked were interfering background programs that may have caused the double-clicking issue, but that turned out not to be the issue as well.
Which left me with a driver or hardware problem. I noticed at that time that Microsoft has a support page up detailing the issue. Troubleshoot mouse double-clicking when you single-click basically lists the same reasons for the behavior that I came up with. The company suggests to test the mouse in Safe Mode which I did not do. This could however be another option for Windows users who are experiencing the same phenomenon.
My next stop were the Logitech mouse drivers. I decided to uninstall them to see if the default Windows mouse drivers were causing the same issue. After uninstallation and reboot, and some testing, I noticed that the problem had been resolved. While I can't say with 100% certainty that the drivers were corrupt, I can say that uninstalling the drivers did resolve the issue which suggests just that.
Since I did not want to stick to the default Windows mouse drivers, I decided to download the latest Logitech Setpoint mouse software and install it on my system to see if the issue remained resolved. Thankfully it did.
A hardware defect would have been the last option if uninstalling and installing mouse drivers would not have resolved the problem. Users who have come to this point might want to try the MouseFix software before they send their old mouse in to have it repaired or shop for a new mouse. This software basically blocks the mouse from clicking a second time when the button is released.
For my mouse, the problem seems to be that the switch isn't "debounced" when you release the button — i.e. when you release it, it actually clicks again. Basically, the program intercepts "up" events for the left mouse button, and ignores any subsequent "up" events that follow within a very small time.
The program is only compatible with Windows XP according to the author. I probably would have tested it under Windows 7 anyway to see if it resolves the issue.
My issue was double click wouldn’t open folder. Only way to open folder was to right click and select open. Spent quite a bit of time looking for a solution with nothing working. Although this subject title was related to double clicking (but not my issue), I looked at it and it helped fix my issue. It was related to the double click speed.
Saw that double click speed was set at almost fast. Set it to a little below middle towards slow and it fixed it.
So this seems to happen to me when I use Windows Photo Viewer. Occasionally when I’m looking through pictures, the application will skip over a photo real quickly as if I hit the arrow button twice when I only clicked once. It sometimes goes days without doing it before it will start up again. I am unsure whether it double clicks elsewhere, but I sure notice it for the photo viewer. Does this sound like the applicable problem in the article or something else? (it’s definitely just a mouse problem, right?)
Link not working
Which one? The one in the article works.
… in comments for ClickFix, the second one work though.
the first one
This article explained my exact issue but the driver is a generic one as I’m using windows 8.1 and a generic mouse of unnamed vendor. The MouseFix program works flawlessly!
This on a Windows 8.1 64bit :)
Thanks!
Awesome fix. 3 year old logitech mouse is working again flawlessly. BTW, my os is win 8.1 :) Thanks for MouseFix.
Absolutely best fix available. The trolls should stay under their bridge =)
Worked like a charm, I can finally work properly again without having to solder or bend the copper spring in the switch! (and risk destroying the mouse)
Yay for you, sir.
Solved all my problems. Many thanks.
Thank you for the article! If not for mouse fix, i might have had to buy another mouse.! Keep up the good work!
Mouse fix worked wonders man!
Kudos!!
That was one annoying problem. MouseFix worked.
Thank you
Try this website. http://www.experienceit.pl/download It’ll fix your double clicking problem. Worked on my Vista using a HP Pavailion mouse with the red light on the bottom connected to the Desktop.
Thanks so MUCH !
so far so good! thanks for the info
Thanks Pepperoni, it works PERFECT!
Mousefix.exe is working on Windows 7 x64 and has solved my double-click problem. Shame on the trolls that think most of us would not test doubleclick speed in mouse control panel in the first place…
Great fix article. Had double-triple clicks for about 6 months. Have an Acer mouse. Took it apart blew out all the dust bunnies and cleaned all moving parts with a tooth brush (dry). Can’t believe it, now works like a charm! Thanks and will save this article for future. Now if someone can cure my click a link and nothing happens on IE but works perfect when using Chrome?
Same annoying issue here. Your article was useful to address directly to the point and saving testing times. Thanks
(“quadruple click” ha haa nice response for the brainless)
if your having a problem single clicking, check the internal of the mouse where the little black box is, and lubricate it (I used a VERY small drop of WD-40) and it works perfectly! I had this problem for 4-6 months
Thank you for the article and the simplicity of it. Also, thank you for Daniel Jackson’s link.
This Article has actually helped me out a lot! thank you Martin :)
I installed Windows 7 64-bit this week on a new SSD drive. I also have a Wacom Intuos tablet as well as the standard mouse. Both worked fine until tonight, when suddenly, both devices were doing the double-click on a single touch. I thought I’d accidentally changed my Explorer settings to open files on single-click, but that is not the case. The mouse test in Control Panel produces normal single click results. Same with the Wacom Control Panel. But outside their respective utilities, these two devices, in the greater Win 7 desktop environment, produce double clicks! Very odd. I’m finding a lot of weird things like this in Win 7. And I just restarted it an hour ago and this started happening with the last startup.
I had problem with Logitech mouse, i just googled the problem for fun. I thought no solution will be for hardware problem
But landed here and Daniel Jackson MouseFix worked !!! I can’t believe it … So i can’t leave without saying thanks in comments..
Thanks helped a lot… Thanks..
This has worked for me so far as well. I’m using Windows 8 with a Logitech mouse. The issue was definitely causing me problems. I was trying to play Borderlands 2 and it kept selling a majority of my characters inventory. Then when I went to buy the item back and clicked once it would buy multiple items back. The issue continued when I was doing a program layout with Visual Basic. You can imagine the frustration when trying to move a button and every click culminating in the code form instead. I was going batty. Thank you, once again.
I just tested VB again and it is indeed functioning as desired. :D
I would like to clarify that I used the MouseFix program and that it does indeed work with my installation of windows 8.
Same here. as asha says.
I also didn’t think there would be such a simple & inexpensive solution
to a hardware problem on my device..
,….
Thanks a lot Martin B.
Thx! MouseFix works fine with my Windows 7.
If hardware issue, disassembly switch and solder again with new switch
Tried the double click software fix under Windows 7 (32bit) — software doesn’t seem to be helping and apparently my mouse is a logitech and it seems to be a common issue with their products now. :( (Which is a bummer, I just bought the damn thing few months ago!)
Though, this did help me give some good ideas about what the crap was happening to the mouse. Thank you!
I had this exact problem and followed the precise troubleshooting
you did on this, Martin, and I was just about to try the very
same software MouseFix before I tried a longshot.
It was a hardware issue and when disconnected
I forcefully and repeatedly clicked the mouse
thinking it might alleviate the contacts
from sticking and it did for me.
MouseFix is supposed to work with not only for (thank goodness Windows XP), but also with the Windows 7 OS family!
I was foolish to trust such a flawed program that only works for Windows XP!
I run Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and I am at my limit in patience!
The next time any of you actually speak to the asshole who wrote that program MouseFix, tell him he can reprogram it to work for Windows 7 as well and upload it for free downloading!
Peter: the person who wrote MouseFix did it for free, and offered it for free. Your problem is not automatically his problem. If what he offers the world for free didn’t help you, perhaps you should consider paying him to write something customised just for you …instead of abusing him.
—DIV
MouseFix works with Windows7. I just copied the program into ProgramFiles(x86) and it works just fine, and of course it solved the problem for me!
I was soooooo sad to find out my lovely Razer Naga Molten Edition had this issue, and I was just about to go peel off the thing underneath to split it up! But I did like you and forcefully clicked like a maniac all over the button and it so far actually worked! Thank you :)
Interesting. My version of Windows died shortly after I wrote the article, and I spend the better half of the day setting it up again. No system restore, repair or whatever seemed to help unfortunately. I’m still copying data over, registering programs again and the like.
Well that is good to know of your
positive impression of those features..
Anything that helps is welcome
and its good to see Windows
offering new tools to help.
I feel your pain on that situation.
It’s the day we all secretly dread.
It has happened twice to me, each time
with hard drive failures, and no matter how
good you get at backups there is always a ton
of work getting things back to what you had before.
I recently tried the refresh and reset options of Windows 8, and they are both great. Not sure if they would have helped me in this case, but I think they can be really beneficial in many cases.
After a year and a half searching on the web for a solution to the double-clicks with the Logitech mouse, I was ready to ditch laptop and mouse. I searched one more time this morning and found the article. Although it mentioned only Windows XP, I had nothing to lose, I tried it on my Windows 10. So far it is working as it should. Thank you very much!
Now I have to find a solution to the second problem for which I wanted to bin the laptop. Every day I MUST re-connect to the wireless which is driving me insane. I now have hope in finding the problem and a fix.
When I double-click on a word in Windows (browser or Notepad) it selects the word plus the space after it. This is really annoying when copying and pasting a word and I can see no reason why this behaviour would be wanted – how can I stop Windows from doing this?
Glad I’m not the only one getting annoyed at this Window’s “feature”. Please let us know if you figure out how to select the word without the space. I’ve been searching the web on and off for about 3 years for this.
Have you tried going to Options in Word? Its in a different place in different versions, then Advanced, then uncheck “When selecting, automatically select entire word.” Then OK. that should fix it.
I had the same problem with main Logitech corded mouse M500 (setpoint 6.20 – 32 bit) and I did it the same way, to correct it. Any thoughts about that this problem is maybe specific to the Logitec mouse?
I had this issue with my Logitech mouse for a while. Tried bunch of things and not sure which exactly made it go away (so far), but one more hardware-related advice I found posted by Logitech on their site is that it can be because of static electricity and to remove battery from mouse for some time to have switches discharge or something like that.
lool Exactly
worse article ever lmao! I think it was made by someone who just started using windows lol
“lool”
“worse article”
“lmao!”
“lol”
Your reply was written by someone with the mentality of a 12 year old.
Consequently your comment carries the same level of authority.
It is obvious why you had trouble understanding the article.
I couldn’t agree more, Robert.
Are you SERIOUS?!?!?!
I expected an article a little bit more technical then this!!
You could simply go to:
My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > And switch to double click instead of single click!!!!!!!
Sasha, relax and go take a sip in some cheap Ukrainian bar! And easy on the language!!!!!!!!!
This has nothing to do with mouse single/double clicks.
This is when your mouse is set to register one click on single mouse button press and anyway the mouse clicks twice. This is a known windows 10 bug on some hardware.
You obviously didn’t understand what you were reading! This is a common problem with Logitech and certain other brands of mice, as they get older. The contacts become tricky. Sometimes a slight amount of corrosion, but in the Logitech, it’s exceeded the “clcik-span” (think lifetime, but in number of clicks rather than time) of the button’s switch / contacts. In the case of the Logitech switch, the contact is also a spring. And it slightly flattens. If you take the switch apart, clean the contact and ever so slightly expand the underlying C shaped portion of the contact, you can revive it. Or, if you have another mouse using a similar switch style, you can simply exchange the contacts. Requires care, a small screwdriver and a razor thin object (such as an Exacto blade) to open the switch. No soldering required.
Thank you Mark, very well explained. I was having the same trouble, finally found your fix!
goog dude nice tip
I am afraid you misunderstood the article.
Which for the record explained the issue properly.
So if my mouse is double clicking when I want single click, I should change the settings to “double click instead of single click!!!!!!!” ?
That would make a quadruple-click then I suppose.
They are not understanding the issue here. Maybe my fault for not explaining it properly.
Once I had similar issue, caused by hardware problem: the contacts in click switch accumulated some corrosion , what made their contact unstable and thus throwing “up/down” even for non-double action.
I “revived” that mouse two times, disassembling it and clearing the contacts, then assembling back, but then changed it. Troubled mouse was of Genius brand, and after some time I became so disappointed with their hardware, that I don’t buy anything from Genius anymore.
As for Logitech, I bought some of their mice couple of times, but was rather disappointed with hardware design (doesn’t fit well in my hand) and mostly – driver quality. I even installed A4 Tech drivers instead of Logitech for Logitech mouse, and got it working better.
Now I have Logitech mouse on my workplace in office, – and I’m disappointed with driver software again (also I had Logitech keyboards, but changed them with A4 Tech ones) .
I might have something that will help others with this double-clicking issue.
I had hardware issues as well – after multiple cleans. So, I tried to find a software solution instead. The one piece of software I did find was useless – except for counting how many clicks it ‘fixed’. After a bit of frustration, I decided it would be worth the time to spend a few hours writing my own solution. My project is called “ClickFix” (http://github.io/cemrajc/clickfix/releases/lastest). It works for my mouse and I hope it works for yours too.
Unfortunately, it is a Windows only program because I used AutoHotKey to write the script. Porting it to other OSes would take me more time than I have to give.
All it needs now is publicity – spread the word if it works for you! That’s exactly what I’ve been doing – posting this message on a few forums where the issue wasn’t resolved for me (including here).
Works on Windows 10 19 Jan 2021
Thank you so much! This is what I have been searching for ages. Fixes my problem perfectly! 10/10
Thanks! Working very well so far. Any problems and I’ll post on your GitHub page.