I have an older PC I'm updating/(re)building and all was working OK. However, today, launching programs from the Start Menu started working weird. Here's the deal...
On the Start Menu>Programs>Accessories>Games flyout menus (and all the other flyouts in the Start Menu), several of the flyouts have the little black triangle pointing to the right, telling you there is another layer of flyout menu available. Hovering over these causes the next level flyout to appear. When you get to the end of the line, you click your choice and the program runs. No big deal. Except for this PC - starting TODAY sometime!!
Now, when I move my mouse over to the last choice of the "thread" of flyout menus, left clicking that option (like Solitaire, or Minesweeper, etc.) does not launch the program. It's the weirdest thing.
But, there's a twist...
If I left click the Start Menu, release the left button, and navigate the mouse (by hovering only) to the end choice of the thread, and then left click again to launch a program, it does not launch. (and the choice does not go away, it just sits and stares at me!)
Starting over, if I left click the Start Menu, and keep the left button held down, navigate through the flyouts to the end of the thread, and release the left mouse button on top of the end choice of the thread, (ie, Solitaire, Minesweeper, whatever), the program launches just fine.
Starting over again, if I press the Start Button on my keyboard, and use Arrow keys to navigate through the flyouts, and press Enter on the final thread choice, again, the program launches just fine.
And, starting over again, if I left click the Start Menu, release the left button, and navigate the mouse (by hovering only) to the end choice of the thread, and then left click again to launch a program, it does not launch. However, at this time while hovering over the program that refuses to launch by left clicking, while the choise is highlighted, if I press enter, the program launches!! Go figure.
It's almost as if there is an option set somewhere for the mouse to behave like a MAC.
This behaviour started this afternoon (well, I noticed it then...) after I updated my PC with updates from the Microsoft web site. (This was a pretty old version of Win98 I got on a harddrive, and I put the harddrive into a new box - long story). The more I think about it, the more I think this was happening prior to updating Windows today.
Anyone have any ideas?
I was using a cheapo 2 button PS/2 mouse and I thought it might be acting up, but I ruled that out after installing my known-to-be-perfect-working USB optical mouse off of my laptop. I had the same results.
Thanks, Todd