Random XP single/double clicks?

Sometimes when my mouse is moving about or idle in XP, the cursor will single or double click whatever the mouse is on without me pressing any mouse buttons! Is there any way to prevent this?

Try replacing the mouse first, to see if it's faulty or not. If that doesn't help, it might be possible you have some dodgy software installed on the PC.

It's not the mouse - I've already tested that by switching between my laptop mouse and my external PS/2 mouse.

What do you mean by dodgy software?

Possibly bad mouse drivers, but also possibly malware/spyware etc. - I've seen things that will make the mouse wander about the screen by itself and do other weird things to the PC, you might want to scan for those too if you're certain that hardware is not at fault.

I just got this laptop about 10 days ago, so it hasn't had the time to be infected by various spyware, etc. At least, I wouldn't think so... I suspect the mouse driver, though.

What exactly is spyware? Isn't it a program installed on my computer by someone else so they can record what I am doing? But doesn't that get detected by antivirus and other such screening devices?

Spyware is any program that's installed either without your knowing about it or as a fine-print inclusion with some other software, that usually gathers information about you or your computer and uses that information in some way that you didn't explicitly agree to. Programs like CometCursor and Gator install themselves in the background when you visit certain webpages, without even notifying you that they're doing it, and then they run forever until you remove them. Some programs record every website you visit and send that information to marketing companies. Some programs add banner ads or popups to various other programs (web browsers) on your computer in a way that you might not even notice. Some programs change your homepage to some company's website every once in a while without asking first in hopes that you'll buy their junk. I think some of the more malicious ones sit on your computer and try to make long-distance phone calls to other countries using your modem so that you get a huge phone bill.

Trojan horses or keyloggers would be worse. Trojan horses let other people connect to your computer and execute commands like they were sitting at your desk. Some let you take over someone else's mouse, so hopefully that's not what you have. Keyloggers record every keypress you make and email or otherwise send that information back to someone else in hopes of getting your passwords or other sensitive information.

I figured the problem out a couple of weeks ago, but it just occured to me that I'd post the solution here for reference for other users who might have the same problem.

With newer laptops, the touchpad-type mouse has these extra built in gizmos. One is whenever you tap the touchpad in the center, it functions as a click. So tap twice, it's a double click. Thus, there is a lot of room for error, as you could be repositioning your finger on the pad and BAM, Internet Explorer closes. So it's not necessarily spyware. So to solve it, go to your Mouse settings and disable the "tapping" feature.