Having problems double-clicking?

I often wonder how many times noobies struggle with something on their computer never knowing a simple solution is available right at their fingertips.

Take for instance something as routine as the double-click action on the mouse. Today I watched a client repeatedly struggle to double-click her mouse. The problem was that her two clicks were too far apart from one another. So instead of the computer recognizing a double-click, it instead recognized the action as two separate clicks.

I know what some of you are thinking. Just learn to click faster. Sure, that will work, but that isn’t the only solution.

In my client’s case, I asked if I could make one simple change to her computer configuration and then brought up the mouse settings in the Windows control panel.

I asked my client to try double-clicking the picture of the folder to see if she could open it. It took her 5 or 6 tries before she finally got it.

I then adjusted the double-click speed to a slower speed and asked her to try a couple more times. She got it on the first try every time.

One small change and her double-click problem vanished forever.