For some reason, some of my shortcuts don't seem to open on a double-click whereas others will. For example, I've just installed an external hard-drive, and the desktop shortcut won't operate with a double-click, I get an 'access denied' report. And I can open 'My Computer' with a double-click, but if I try to access any of the stuff within it, double-click doesn't work. Is there any way I can change this setting or is that just the way XP works?
im just trying to understand your problem here. if you double click on my computer, it opens the my computer panel, but then if you try to double click on anything inside the my computer panel i.e hard drive cdrom drive nothing happens? is that your problem?
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I can double-click on the 'My Computer' icon on the desktop to open it, but to open anything inside that window, I have to R. Click and choose Open or Explore because double-clicking gives an Access Denied message. Similarly, on my desktop I can double-click on several programme icons and they will open with the double-click, but some icons (such as my new shortcut to my new external backup drive) require a R. Click - same error message if I double-click. Is this just the way XP works?
no. xp is not designed to work that way. i dont understand why double clicking will result in access denied, while right clicking lets you open it just fine.
Thanks for trying - I appreciate it and even if you can't provide a solution, at least I know that it is a problem, not something XP is supposed to do.
im a noob but i have an external hard drive myself and i find that when i turn it on and click on my shortcut to fast b4 the pc reconizes it i get that error message also my usb ports are a little sensitive as well i find myself having to jiggle the cord to get them to reconize my hd so check these things out first that might be the problem delete the short cut go into my computer and see if the device is there then redo the shortcut and hopefully that works thats all i have
Thanks for that - tried it and same problem. At the back of my mind is that I didn't have this problem last year (although I could be wrong on that) so I assume that something has gone wrong with my XP. I've tried the Microsoft Knowledge Base etc. It's not a huge issue, as obviously I can still access stuff by R. clicking, but I just wondered if it was easy to rectify.
