Outlook 2010 annoying bug - some e-mails opening on single click

In the last few days my Outlook seems to have developed an extremely annoying bug. On occasion when I single click on an e-mail instead of just showing it in the reading pane it is opening the item in a new window. This happens randomly on some e-mails but there's no discernable pattern. Even sinlge clicking on the same e-mail produces different results. Also very annoying is that when I then close that e-mail it is closing the whole of Outlook. So far I've tried doing a repair on Office and setting up a new Outlook profile but neither fixed the issue. Any ideas other than just wiping out my whole Windows profile or removing/reinstalling Outlook?

Thanks

May 17th, 2012 4:19pm

Hi emytjls,

We've had a PC that has started doing similar things in the last month. In our case it started with Outlook but then seemed to be randomly registering double clicks in all programs even windows explorer itself.

We tried replacing the mouse and the mouse drivers, using different USB ports (according to dell some of their PCs prefer the mouse and keyboard plugged into the 2 USBs beside the network port as sometimes there can be issues when in the others), swapping the HD with a new one and new Windows 7 / Outlook 2010 build and even using the old HD build in a new PC and they all had the same issue.

We're currently building a complete brand new PC for the user in question but so far we've not been able to find anything hardware or software related to explain the issue.

I'm not sure if your issue is similar or not or just affects outlook but I thought I'd let you know what we tried as I found reports of people with similar issues and most of the time one of the steps we tried usually solves the issue, just not for us unfortunately. Anyway if you find a solution please let me know (in case it's something we haven't tried) and if I do I'll let you know in case it helps.

Rgs,

Ian

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May 18th, 2012 8:56am

well, the last time I met this problem, it caused by borken wireless mouse. Left-click button became very sensitive. Please change another mouse to test.

Hope this will be the issue root:)

Tony Chen

TechNet Community Support

May 18th, 2012 9:03am

well, the last time I met this problem, it caused by borken wireless mouse. Left-click button became very sensitive. Please change another mouse to test.

Hope this will be the issue root:)

Tony Chen

TechNet Community Support

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May 18th, 2012 9:03am

Where is the down-vote on this page? This doesn't help in the slightest. This is a bug with Outlook, not the mouse. If we wanted a half-assed answer we would have asked Yahoo. Obviously the first thing would have been to replace the mouse, "mod".  
  • Proposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
December 11th, 2012 8:20pm

Where is the down-vote on this page? This doesn't help in the slightest. This is a bug with Outlook, not the mouse. If we wanted a half-assed answer we would have asked Yahoo. Obviously the first thing would have been to replace the mouse, "mod".  
  • Proposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
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December 11th, 2012 8:20pm

I had the same problem and found this thread.  I notoced that if I held the mouse button down a second longer tan usual, it did not happen.  If I single clicked quickly, it would open the message with a single click.  I changed the mouse double click speed to the fastest setting in the control panel and the problem went away.  Hope this helps.
  • Proposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
December 12th, 2012 7:18pm

I had the same problem and found this thread.  I notoced that if I held the mouse button down a second longer tan usual, it did not happen.  If I single clicked quickly, it would open the message with a single click.  I changed the mouse double click speed to the fastest setting in the control panel and the problem went away.  Hope this helps.
  • Proposed as answer by ChrisDeez Wednesday, December 12, 2012 7:19 PM
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December 12th, 2012 7:18pm

I had the same problem and found this thread.  I notoced that if I held the mouse button down a second longer tan usual, it did not happen.  If I single clicked quickly, it would open the message with a single click.  I changed the mouse double click speed to the fastest setting in the control panel and the problem went away.  Hope this helps.

we also have the same issue. nothing work to resolve the same. also waiting a solution form microsoft.
December 26th, 2012 10:28am

I have had the same problem and tried the fixes on this page which didn't work for me. However, this morning I tried a mac mouse which needed a different driver to my standard dell mouse. The mac mouse works normally
  • Proposed as answer by soily78 Monday, January 07, 2013 9:27 AM
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January 7th, 2013 9:27am

I have had the same problem and tried the fixes on this page which didn't work for me. However, this morning I tried a mac mouse which needed a different driver to my standard dell mouse. The mac mouse works normally
  • Proposed as answer by soily78 Monday, January 07, 2013 9:27 AM
January 7th, 2013 9:27am

I had the same issue and as soon as i replaced my mouse it went away, so nothing wrong trying to replace mouse to see if it work for you

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January 9th, 2013 5:17pm

I had the same issue, on a fully-patched Win7 Enterprise desktop PC.  The problem was most pronounced on my Outlook client (Office Pro Plus 2010) but I'd occasionally get extra mouseclicks in other situations (e.g. moving windows on the desktop).  I installed a USB mouse (from my laptop), leaving the old mouse attached to the desktop PC.  I used the USB mouse for a while, then reverted to the old mouse -- which seems to be working fine now.  Very strange... but seems unlikely to be a hardware fault... perhaps a buggy handling of an event queue somewhere deep in the bowels of Win7???

I hope it doesn't recur, because it's very annoying, and I don't always have a spare mouse on hand when I'm using a Windows box!

February 22nd, 2013 2:19am

Hi everybody!

Well, I think I have found a solution to this problem. I experienced exactly the same issue "emytjls" mentioned in his first entry. EXTREMELY annoying!!

In my case there seems to be a connection with Skype, which I use very rarely on my computer (Windows 7, Outlook 2010, USB-light-mouse on my notebook). When I noticed the "single-click-problem" for the first time I realized that Skype was turned on. When I switched it off, the "single-click-stuff" disappeared.

Secondly, I found that my touch pad does not ever cause single-click-problems even when Skype is on. Apart Outlook my USB-mouse works perfectly fine so there is definitely no hardware problem. 

Can you, please, write me if you can reproduce this link between Outlook and Skype? Maybe there is still some other reasons for the problem with your computers?

Best regards!

Yukusoona

Postscritp (12.04.2013):

I have to correct my above-mentioned experiences. After I had discovered the "connection" between Outlook and Skype, my mouse started to do the "click-bug" more and more even outside Outlook - so I found out it actually was a malfunction of my mouse. Now that I have bought a new mouse, all problems have resolved. I guess that when my mouse started to breakt down, I first noticed in Outlook because I work a lot with it.

  • Edited by Yukusoona Friday, April 12, 2013 9:00 PM
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March 28th, 2013 4:03pm

Hi everybody!

Well, I think I have found a solution to this problem. I experienced exactly the same issue "emytjls" mentioned in his first entry. EXTREMELY annoying!!

In my case there seems to be a connection with Skype, which I use very rarely on my computer (Windows 7, Outlook 2010, USB-light-mouse on my notebook). When I noticed the "single-click-problem" for the first time I realized that Skype was turned on. When I switched it off, the "single-click-stuff" disappeared.

Secondly, I found that my touch pad does not ever cause single-click-problems even when Skype is on. Apart Outlook my USB-mouse works perfectly fine so there is definitely no hardware problem. 

Can you, please, write me if you can reproduce this link between Outlook and Skype? Maybe there is still some other reasons for the problem with your computers?

Best regards!

Yukusoona

Postscritp (12.04.2013):

I have to correct my above-mentioned experiences. After I had discovered the "connection" between Outlook and Skype, my mouse started to do the "click-bug" more and more even outside Outlook - so I found out it actually was a malfunction of my mouse. Now that I have bought a new mouse, all problems have resolved. I guess that when my mouse started to breakt down, I first noticed in Outlook because I work a lot with it.

  • Edited by Yukusoona Friday, April 12, 2013 9:00 PM
March 28th, 2013 4:03pm

Hey all,

sorry to wake up this old topic, but i had the same issue, was so annoyed that i couldn't find a solution.

Found a quite funny one: pressed both mouse keys "quite hard" for several times within about 5 seconds. guess there was some dust between the sensors or somthing like that.

sounds stupid, but as long as it helps, i guess it doesn't matter :)

Now outlook doesn't annoy me anymore.

Good luck!

Mole

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October 14th, 2013 9:26am

The 2 mouse button thing worked for me! Thank you!!!
November 5th, 2013 2:14pm

THANK YOU!!! I was getting annoyed with the constant answer of "replace the mouse" I am using a brand new computer with a brand new mouse.. Your answer is the ONLY one that helped! it fixed the issue right away. It was really starting to drive me crazy!
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December 12th, 2013 3:50pm

Thank you for this simple solution, I shared with my IT dept, they have been scratching their heads trying to resolve this issue for me.  I pressed hard for a few seconds and the issue has been resolved.  Amazing.
January 3rd, 2014 3:27pm

can you please elaborate what is the "2 mouse button thing"? this problem is driving me crazy...
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January 22nd, 2014 11:16pm

I had a colleague with that problem.  We switched his mouse with mine and it was working.  i then realized that his moise was plugged into the USB port on his keyboard.  As soon as we switched his mouse back on his laptop USB, it was working.  could be a glitch or the USB port being used may be the problem in terms of connectivity for the mouse.
February 7th, 2014 6:47pm

I am pretty sure this is a jumpy mouse LH button.  I have had the same thing going on.  I am using an old Dell Optical crappy mouse.  If I press really hard and fast, this opening of files in Outlook stops.  If I press lightly it seems to do a double click (sticky button no doubt). 

Here's an idea, buy a Logitec Optical.  Be sure you have "Mouse Double Click" option selected in the Control Panel / Folder / area - you can do a search and find out more.  This setting IS NOT in Mouse Prope

Chow for now,

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May 22nd, 2014 2:28pm

This problem is often a reminder to clean your mouse.  It does not require you to purchase a new one.
June 9th, 2014 12:34pm

Changing the mouse double click speed to the fastest setting in the control panel worked for me. Thanks! This just started today and it was driving me nuts.
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October 21st, 2014 8:55pm

this completely fixed my problem.  I think those that are switching to new mouses are probably having these settings changed with the new mouse drivers? Thank you for your post! :)

April 24th, 2015 12:30pm

did you make the suggested change in the control panel? That worked for me.
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April 24th, 2015 12:30pm

This issue, I believe originates from one of these three, evil sources:

  • Stealthy NSA code designed to turn single-click to double-click when highlighting emails.  The purpose: to display all your email so NSA screen-scrapers can harvest it.
  • Commercial virus code designed to make single-clicks into double-click$, because their corporate ad revenue depends on double-click$$$!
  • Date-driven planned-obsolescence timer code in the mouse driver, designed to drive you nuts after exactly 2.5 years, to force you to buy another mouse in despair.  All cars have this "feature" built in to the computer module nowadays--the dealers can set and re-set a timeframe when the car will start running badly, and require dealer service!
May 15th, 2015 2:46am

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