Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search

Subject: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:41 PM

On my wife's HP computer, double clicking on a file opens the search function. You have to right click and choose "Open" to open the file.

This is, needless to say, very very annoying.

She's using "Windows XP Media Center" as an OS, and I've tried every trick I can think of to change this, including the obvious one of changing what the mouse buttons do. I've even emailed Microsoft (who said, in effect, "It's not us HP must have changed it call them").

Suggestions are welcomed.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: PoppaGator
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:43 PM

Buy a Dell ;^)

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: terrier
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 07:09 PM

Try single click on the file and then hit 'enter'. If that works you know it's something to do with the rodent driver. These things are sent to try our patience!

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 08:48 PM

At Start|Settings|Control Panel double-click to open Folder Options. There is a setting there, on the General tab, for whether items in Windows Explorer open with a single click or with a double click.

I prefer the double click to open in Win Explorer, since often for file management purposes it's handy to click once to select the file without opening it.

Regardless of how you set the mouse clicks in Folder Options, icons on the Startup and Quick Launch tool bars should still open with a single click. Icons on the desktop should respond - single or double click - the same as you set in Win Explorer folders, although you'll need to check to make sure they do what you want.

There is also the possibility that something has been set in Accessibility Options (also in Control Panel) so if setting/resetting the mouse action doesn't fix it you might look there.

The more remote possibility is that the search engine you have set as default may have "imposed" a "special feature," but my defaults don't do that so I haven't run into what might need to be fixed. There might be an "options" option in the search engine where you can make adjustments(?).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 09:44 PM

I use an HP, but can't remember ever coming up against that...perhaps because I never use Windows Explorer. I use several different file managers that I can control easier.
I just opened Explorer, and up top, under 'tools'-> 'folder options', there are ways to set options for double-click..etc. Perhaps that will help..(It may be the same setting that John notes, but gotten to by a different route)

If you should wish to explore a different file manager than Explorer, I recommend http://www.freecommander.com/ as one of the best. It has options in its menu to open files several ways.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 10:01 PM

Bill D -

The behaviour described is not "normal" for Win Explorer, and should only be happening if something has been reset. I don't even see an easy way that it could be reset, to do what's described, in Windows; although I can't eliminate the "accessibility features" since I haven't looked into them much.

We're not told (yet) what search engine is launched, and whether it has its own toolbar(?), but an odd engine or turning on unusual search features could also be guilty. (There also are a lot of "toolbars" that are nothing but malware/spyware in fancy dress, and they can be tempting to the unwary.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 10:13 PM

Yep, John...I see what you mean. Perhaps some rogue 'toolbar' has gotten hold of the settings.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: GUEST,c.g.
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 05:17 AM

Does the computer go on line? Have you virus checked? The first sign of trouble I had was when every time I typed the letter 'e' in an email, it went straight to Windows explorer.

Of course it might just have been a co-incidence.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 06:12 AM

Here's a couple of articles describing the same symptoms:

Windows Explorer Double Click Opens Search Page

Double click opens search instead of folder

Both describe the same fix with registry edit.

(Ignore offers to scan your machine on the site).

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 04:01 PM

Since the thread managed to reach the mature state of "24 hours unmolested," hopefully the original problems have been solved.

The last link above by Mick Pearce (Double click opens search instead of folder) presents something of a curiosity that may have been missed. The linked brief "fix" makes reference to a Microsoft article:

How to add the Print Directory feature for folders in Windows XP (Article 321379).

[Note that the article was "verified" a year after the fix comment in the original link. It may have been "edited" and may not be exactly as originally cited; but it does still make reference to the "double-click" problem.]

Windows Explorer has never, to my knowledge, in any version since it appeared, provided an easy way to make a simple printed/printable list of the files in a folder. The article tells how, in WinXP, you can create an "Action" in Folder Properties that will allow you to right click on a folder and get a list of the files it contains and open it in Notepad. (It should be noted that the list itself is made in a temp folder, and is deleted by the .bat file that actually makes it, so it appears that you would need to save it from Notepad before you close if you want to keep the list.)

The article notes that after you create this "tool," double-clicking on a folder may open search (or may not?) and gives the regedit32 correction you need to make if this happens. It is not clear whether there is something "special" about this tool, or whether it might happen with any custom tool that runs a .bat file and is "attached" to Folder Properties.

There have been many previous versions of special tools to make a list of files in Windows as each new Win version has appeared. So far as I've seen, knowledgeable users have NEVER used any of them much. All such "patch methods," whether from Microsoft of from "loonie with a computer" have invariably had objectionable "other features" like the double-click glitch here.

Since it hasn't changed through all the "improved versions" of Windows over the past 25-odd years, my preferred method has just to open a Command Prompt window, go to the folder, and type:

DIR *.*>filename.txt

This runs the DIR command to make a list of the files, and sends it (>) to a file named filename.txt in the folder where you run it.

If you want to list all the subfolders, you simply add the /S switch:

DIR *.*/S >filename.txt

There are 14 other "switches" you can use with the DIR command, and a couple of them have a number of "modifiers," to choose what information is shown, and how it's formatted in the result. If necessary, before you run your Command Prompt DIR *.*, you can refresh your memory about what you want by just typing:

DIR /?

IN WINDOWS EXPLORER some may not have noticed that if you click on the View command at the top, one of the choices is "Choose Details." This allows you to change the columns that are displayed in WinExplorer. In WinXP there actually are about 45 different things you can choose to list. In Vista, there are more than 250, and the useful ones are, of course, at the bottom of the list so you'll be sure to have to look at all the humorous ones to find them.

In Vista's WinExplorer, there IS NO SEARCH BUTTON. There is ONE SMALL BOX where you can enter "something" to search for, and "YOU WILL LIKE WHAT WE SHOW YOU AND YOU WILL BELIEVE." Vista uses an "indexed search"¹ that is intended to speed up searching on large drives with immense numbers of files. Unfortunately, you can ONLY FIND WHAT MICROSOFT CHOOSES TO PUT IN THE INDEX. For me, it is MOSTLY USELESS; but others may find it helpful(?) if expectations are low and needs are simple(minded).

¹ Like Mudcat and the DT(?), except in Vista it doesn't work even when the index is up to date.

There will be no quiz on this material, but it may be necessary to apply the material covered in future exams.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 05:09 PM

Indeed, I have never found a convenient way to print the contents of a directory without a helper program.... There are, fortunately, several of those available. Two of the best are

http://www.spadixbd.com/freetools/jdirprint.htm

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp

(Karen Kenworthy "has written for Windows Magazine and Winmag.com, for almost a decade. Her free Power Tools newsletter has over 50,000 subscribers, and is growing by 100 new subscribers every day. She also writes custom programs, and develops web sites")

There is even a program to copy the structure of a set of folders, without the content...
http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/treecopy/

(I have used this to begin a selective copying/backup of selected files to another drive)


I got all of the programs by exploring http://The Pricelessware site

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 06:35 PM

There is even a program to copy the structure of a set of folders, without the content...

At Command prompt, XCOPY /T copies the directory structure without copying any files.

XCOPY has 26 switches, with modifiers.

Most such "miracle add-on" programs simply invoke common Command (formerly DOS) routines, with a pretty interface. Do-It-Yourself using the actual commands avoids "little features" like the double-click (which should be worked out in a real "pro" utility) but knowing that you CAN DO IT ALL (nearly) with what you've got eliminates the need to fill your file structure with a lot of "extras."

The XCOPY function is also useful for backups, since:

XCOPY C:\folder\*.*/S/D

will copy all files from the folder source folder, omitting any that are already in the destination that have the same or newer date (the /D does that). You can also supply an "argument" for the /D switch to copy everything with a date after ...

XCOPY C:\DOCS\*.*/S/D:12-10-2007

would copy only files deom C:\DOCS, including subfolders (/S) with filedate 10 DEC 2007 or after (/D:12-10-2007).

And you can enter a list of files to be excluded from the copy, using the switch:

/EXCLUDE:file1+file2+...

This sort of stuff may be less easily used by those who weren't FORCED TO LEARN to use a command prompt back in olden times; but the methods still mostly work, and if you're not just a wannbe-textmailer it's probably worthwhile knowing at least a few of the commands.

There have been some very important changes in the Command Set - the commands you can use and how they work, with most of the changes being significant improvements, at least up to WinXP. A few new ones in Vista remain "unproven" - in my house; but most of the usual ones seem to be present.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 07:34 PM

OT and I'm sure it's been answered before but what is the attraction in double clicking where one click can work?

I used to set one click when I found later Win allowed and with my preferred Linux/KDE/OpenSuse, set up (Gnome on the same is 2 clicks btw) it is the default and it seems so much easier to me.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 09:06 PM

I entered "regsvr32 /i shell32.dll" at the c:\ prompt, as suggested in a link above, and that cured it. Biggest problem was remembering how to get to the c directory when I haven't used DOS in a long, long time. Finally remembered.

Thanks for all the help!

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 09:08 PM

Jon -

The single click vs double click setting applies mostly in WinExplorer. I DON'T use it, so I don't remember if it's supposed to affect icons on the desktop. Icons in the Startup tray (at the lower right usually) may work either way, regardless of the setting, but usually require a double-click. Icons in the Quicklaunch tray (usually lower left) will always, I think, open on single click.

If you set to open on single click, you "can't touch the file" without it opening. You have to use right click and then read a bunch of menu choices for almost anything other than "open it." The advantage in using double-click to open is that there are other things you can do with a single-click that are made unavailable if you set it to open the file.

If you set it to double click to open, you can select it without opening it with a single click. This is particularly handy when selecting several files to cut or copy to move them elsewhere. You can click one, and hold down Shift while you click another one, and you'll get all the files in between selected. You can click one, then hold Ctl while you click each of several others to select several that are splattered all over in the list without including all the ones in the gaps.

Once you make the first click to select a file, a second click (definitely NOT a double click, there has to be at least a brief pause between) will "open the file name" so that you can change its name. When you've made the change, clicking another file or anything outside the filename "box" where you made the change (or doing almost anything else) closes the "edit window" and makes the change stick.

There are a lot of things you can do to/with a file, especially in WinExplorer but to some extent on the desktop, other than just open it. Using a "distinctive" double-click to open, that always means open it makes it much easier to do "all the other stuff" (and you can still resort to the right-click when needed).

Slightly on the side: A "trick" that I don't use, but that may be handy for some. When you download a bunch of snapshots from your camera, they'll probably have rather unintelligible names. I like to rename them to indicate the date taken. In WinExplorer, if you select all the pictures taken the same day, then right click one of them and select "Rename," you can enter the date (I'd use 071216.jpg tonight, for example) and the ones selected will be renamed 071216.jpg, 071216(1).jpg, 071216(2)jpg, 071216(3), ... ... etc.

I use another (image) program to rename mine, that allows some additional options, but if you ain't got one to do it right, you can do at least that much with WinExplorer.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 02:35 AM

Thanks John. It's a while since I really used Win so I don't remember.

On my KDE desktop, file manager, etc. I can select files on 1 left click and do the ctrl and shift for multiple files. As long as ctrl/shift is pressed, a file won't open.

I can't do your renaming trick on this. It seems from the right click/properites all I can do with a group is change the file permissions (owner, user group, and others with their permissions + whether a file is executable).

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 04:27 AM

A right click can show a number of options, and some may vary with what kind of file it is.

If you select a group of files, you can choose "Open" and in theory can open all of the files at the same time, each in its own default program, even if they don't all open in the same program. You can also chose "Open With" to try to force them all to open in the same program.

I use the grouped open quite a lot for .jpg images with Photoshop Elements, although it protests when I try to open more than about a dozen at the same time. The program handles several dozen at the same time if I just click "SHUT UP and Open the #@$! things" after it complains.

Word is pretty good about opening up to close to a dozen .doc files at the same time (I haven't tried opening a really big batch), but often drops the extras and only opens the first one for .txt and .rtf files. The Adobe pdf Reader appears to able to handle only one file at a time most of the time.

You can also select Print from the right-click menu, and the files supposedly will print without opening (if your default printer setup can handle it). I've never used this very much, because I usually like to check out what I'm printing (paper and ink/toner ain't exactly free - especially the ink).

At least half the things on the menu are stuff I've never used; but of course there are always other ways to do almost everything in WinXP.

Similar, but somewhat fewer, options will be found with older (than WinXP) versions. There appear to be some new ones in Vista, but the ones I've noticed wouldn't be too useful to anyone I know who's past about age 13, or at least who quit learning anything at about that age.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 05:19 AM

Pretty much the same with KDE, John. It varies but first right clicK I try gives:

Open, Cut, Copy, Rename, Move to wastebin, Open with (chose app), Actions (this on - Peview in kate, Create Data CD/DVD with K3B, etc.), Compress (some options), Copy to, Move to, Properties.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 06:07 AM

For reference, with no arguments and no particular purpose -

WinXP - for a file:

Open, New, Print, Analyze with Foldalyzer, Add to ZIP, Add to (folder)ZIP, ZIP & Email, Scan with AV, Send to, Cut, Copy, Paste, Create Shortcut, Delete, Properties

Same for a folder, with additional:

Explore, Search, Sharing & Security, Paste

The lists actually can change some for a few different file types and/or for the kinds of files in a folder.

The basic menus in Vista are about the same.

A couple of the choices have slide-outs with additional subselections.

The ZIP and AV functions probably are added - or modified - by programs I have installed - not default parts of Windows (I have WinZIP and Norton installed), although WinXP I think includes its own ZIP function (which has some limitations), and Vista brags about how its zip/extract utility does everything. (I haven't really looked at whether all the bragging is really true.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 08:21 AM

Well, John, since I have almost NO experience with DOS and command line techniques, I am always glad to find someone has provided these clever little programs with coherent, menu-driven ways to accomplish the many tasks I might want on merely an occasional basis.

   I can easily see why those who DID learn DOS might feel the extra baggage is tedious and uses unnecessary space, but trying to remember a set of command line 'switches' for a twice-a-year need is much harder for me than letting that "pretty interface" do it....and my 160 GB drive has LOTS of room to store 'em still...*grin*

I AM old enough to have learned stick-shift cars, (either floor or column) and I can even sharpen and use a push lawn mower if necessary, and I can use a hand plane and several types of hand saws in my shop...but I am usually glad to let technology save me from some things.

   I suppose I 'enjoy' finding these new tools (especially when most of them are free)and exploring which of them will do the tricks most efficiently and with the least amount of MY memory involved. I have little doubt that, in 15-20 years, knowing DOS will be a pasttime for a few techies and history buffs, much as knowing how to hand-crank a car or load a musket is for a few.

It's good that those like you, Jon, Rapaire and others do still understand how these programs are constructed and how to easily bypass the "pretty interface" for certain tasks, but my brain just does not want to learn what looks like non-English code. I even balk at learning HTML, except for the basic patterns for a URL and making italics and underlines, etc. (My wife, on the other hand, having spent 20 years using DOS, IS learning some HTML to do our web site. It just comes natural to her.)

(I am reminded of the admonition given to software writers who forget that 'simple' can mean different things to different people. "Customers don't want ¼ inch drill bits, they want ¼ inch holes!")

The nice thing about Mudcat is that we have folks who can help with almost any situation our various members have questions about...on 'almost' any level.

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 09:16 AM

Windows.

Linux.

Unix (YEAH!)

Back in MY day we didn't have all these fancy things. Nossir! We programmed on a manual typewriter and sometimes with a pencil! And we didn't have these fancy-schmancy ones and zeroes, either. No! They hadn't been invented yet. WE used lower-case ells and ohs and when I FIRST started we only had lower-case ells because they were still creating the alphabet! And my programming prof remembered programming by whacking two rocks together, and she said that was an improvement over programming with smoke signals! And we did it in machine code, too!

You guys today are wimps, that's all. Wimps...grumble...grumble....

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 09:46 AM

you betcha! Wimp! That's me!

(I actually did know a guy who worked for Burroughs in about 1972, and who would go in to their suit & tie office wearing his tee-shirt and sandals (with beard) and type directly in machine code to solve their problems. The gritting of their teeth could be heard for miles!)

(that was when Fortran was only TWOtran)

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Dec 07 - 12:44 AM

Bill D -

Our little difference is quite simply explained:

You are a acquirer, who likes to have a new toy for each game.

I'm more an inquirer, who would rather learn to use the toys I have, and perhaps patch them up a bit, and invent my own new games for them, than to learn how to play with a new toy that - for me - doesn't really do anything.

But whatever works for you is the method you should use - as long as it's moral (to your standards), ethical (or evadable), legal (or concealable), and not too fattening.

*** *** ***

A quick look at the Command Prompt in Vista shows most of the same commands still available. There are apparently one or two additions, with "ROBOCOPY" being an apparent new one that might be useful(?).

One of the "good things" that WinXP came up with was a full listing and description of the commands in Help, where you could print them out and study them if necessary. The listing also indicated what older commands had been removed, what retained ones worked differently, and what new ones were added.

Obviously, as this was a "good thing" it has been apparently expunged completley in Vista. There's an instruction to open a Command Prompt and type HELP to get a list, which does work (I count 86 commands available), but to get the individual descriptions the only visible method is to type each command as a query. The instruction is to type "HELP COMMAND," where you put the name of the command you want in place of COMMAND. The older, and more convenient "COMMAND /?" still works though.

Since there is no indication of what's gone, what's changed, or what's new, the only way to know what you've got to work with is to look closely at each one individually, so by making it possibly(?) more warm and fuzzy for illiterates, they've made it necessary for the previously skilled to start over (almost) from scratch.

While it is/was easy to print a topic from help, it's not obvious how you can do it from a command prompt. While there is a method you can theoretically use to "cut-n-paste" the results individually from the Command window, it's unlikely that most people who need a print copy will be able to find it.

Today's lesson: In a Command Prompt window in WinXP or Vista, you can click on the tiny little button at the top left of the header bar where the icon looks like a miniature of the window.

The drop down menu includes "Edit" where you must chose "Mark" to get an "anchor" in the window. The "anchor" will be at the top of whatever's visible, so you want to scroll, if possible, so that what you want to copy starts at the top of the visible area, before placing the anchor.

You can click on the anchor and drag to include what you'd like to copy. (Alternatively, you could have just clicked on "Select All" instead of on "Mark" if you want the whole window)

Once a selection is make, you can either go back to the button, click Edit|Copy or you can use Ctl-C to get the selection into the clipboard.

Note that the "selection" is cleared as soon as you click, key, or move anything, so if you mess it up you have to start over.

Once you have a selection copied and in the clipboard, you can paste it into Notepad or Word.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: Rowan
Date: 18 Dec 07 - 01:16 AM

And my programming prof remembered programming by whacking two rocks together, and she said that was an improvement over programming with smoke signals!

Rapaire, your prof's a bit modern for my taste. I just whack the rocks together to make a nice sharp edge.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 07 - 08:16 AM

With regard to HTML

As one who helped the Qld Uni Computing Club use the new phototypsesetter (the only other one in Queensland at the time was at the Newspaper Office) to print our 'little newsletter' - I realised that the 'word processing command codes' I had to use for that (and similar to 'troff') were pretty much similar to the early DOS word processors that allowed 'layout commands', and thus when I came to HTML, it was just the 'same old, same old'...

~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you select a group of files, you can choose "Open" and in theory can open all of the files at the same time, each in its own default program, even if they don't all open in the same program."

Hahahahaha! ROFL.... well, I used to get an little game... it CAN TAKE SOME TIME TO GET YOUR PC BACK UNDER CONTROL.... ROFL...

~~~~~~~
"I'm more an inquirer, who would rather learn to use the toys I have, and perhaps patch them up a bit, and invent my own new games for them, than to learn how to play with a new toy that - for me - doesn't really do anything."

I'm mainly with YOU JiK... :-)

"If you set to open on single click, you "can't touch the file" without it opening. You have to use right click and then read a bunch of menu choices for almost anything other than "open it." The advantage in using double-click to open is that there are other things you can do with a single-click that are made unavailable if you set it to open the file."

Yep. JiK, AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Double Click on File Opens Search
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 07 - 08:27 AM

Well that post got garbled...

"Hahahahaha! ROFL.... well, I used to get an little game... it CAN TAKE SOME TIME TO GET YOUR PC BACK UNDER CONTROL.... ROFL..."

Hahahahaha! ROFL.... well, on the Win9x, it used to sometimes mark ALL the files on the desktop or in a directory, and I used to get to play a little game... it CAN TAKE SOME TIME TO GET YOUR PC BACK UNDER CONTROL.... ROFL...