Vista Icon Problem

[Renegade 65]

This problem is strange and not even my tech has heard of it nor does he know how to solve.
I have a number of icons on my desktop. When I move my mouse over one, any one, the icon is highlighted in blue which is normal. What is not normal is when the pointer in sitting on the icon highlighted in blue at the top of the icon is a small box. When I click on the icon it puts a check mark in the box. But that's not all. I can double click, triple click or click on the icon numerous times and the program will not open. However, with the icon highlighted, a check mark in the box I hit the "enter" key on the keyboard and the program opens immediately. I'm guessing its a security issue but I have no clue how to remove the small box from the icon or correct the problem. I have two laptops both with Vista and only one has the problem while the other I simply click on a icon and the program responds. Any thoughts?

[juppy]

The check boxes are for selecting multiple icons, like is normally done by holding down the control key (for example, if you wanted to delete three icons, you'd normally hold down Ctrl and left click each of the three icons which would highlight them, then you'd only have to right click and select "delete" on one of the icons and the other two, being highlighted, would be deleted as well).

That's probably why you can't click on the icon to make a program run when the box is checked, because with it checked the icon is highlighted and the OS is expecting you to do something with it, such as move it, delete it, etc.

If it bugs you and you want to turn it off, just open Windows Explorer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Select the "View" tab and uncheck "Use check boxes to select items". Click OK, and they should be gone.

[Renegade 65]

Thanks you very much. Really appreciate the reply that solved my issue.

[F.E.A.R.]

i wud jst get my files on a external then reinstall XP! and then put my files back