3 Ways to Enable Single Click in Windows 11 and Earlier Versions

Quick Tips

• You may prefer the single-click feature as the primary method for opening apps and windows, instead of a double-click.
• Open File Explorer Options and enable Single Click to open an item.
• You can also use the Registry Editor or the Command Prompt to enable the feature.

Method 1: Use the File Explorer Options

Step 1: Open File Explorer Options from the Start menu.

Here’s how you can open the menu on older versions of Windows.

On Windows 7 and Vista

• Right-click the Start button and select Control Panel.
• Select the Appearance and Personalization option on the left-side navigation pane.
• Click the Specify single- or double-click to open the link under the Folder Options setting.

On Windows XP

• Click Start and then go to the Control Panel by clicking its icon.
• Open the Folders option.

Step 2: Under the Click items as follows option, select the Single-click to open an item (point to select) option.

Step 3: Here, you can also choose any of the following items highlighting options:

• Underline icon titles consistent with my browser: all icons and items will look like a hyperlink on the web browser
• Underline icon titles only when I point at them: pointing an item or icon will show up a hyperlink that you can click to visit the app, folder, or file

Step 5: Click the Apply and OK buttons to save and enforce the changes.

Method 2: Enable Single Click to Open Items Using the Registry Editor

When you cannot activate the single click to open apps and files on Windows using any of the above two methods, modify the Windows Registry keys by following the following steps. Don’t forget to back up the Registry entries, in case something goes wrong.

Step 1: Open the Run command box by hitting the Windows + R keys.

Step 2: Then, type regedit in the Run box and hit Enter.

Step 3: Go to the Explorer key from HKEY_CURRENT_USER by expanding these Registry entries: HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Explorer.

When inside the Explorer key, follow these steps:

Step 4: Double-click the IconUnderline and change the value to 2. (Default value is 3)

Step 5: Double-click the ShellState Registry entry.

Step 6: Make the necessary changes as shown in the below image and click on OK.

To help you understand the changes, we’ve added a comparison between the default states and the changes that need to be made. You need to replace the value of the fifth column in the first row with 13.

Step 7: After making the above changes, restart your Windows PC.

Now, you should see the same single-click functionality to open files and elements as you saw in the previous methods.

Method 3: Use the Command Prompt to Activate Single-Click to Open Items

If you find the above-mentioned Registry Editor tweak complicated, follow these steps to activate single-click on Windows using Command Prompt.

Step 1: Open the Command Prompt with administrator rights. Search for the command prompt in the Start menu, right-click, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Now, copy-paste the following code and hit Enter:

REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" /V IconUnderline /T REG_DWORD /D 3 /F

Step 3: Again, copy and paste this command and hit Enter:

REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" /V ShellState /T REG_BINARY /D 240000001ea8000000000000000000000000000001000000130000000000000062000000 /F

Step 3: Restart the Windows PC.

That’s it! You’ve successfully activated the single-click function to open elements on your Windows PC.