Speed up the feel of Windows with the double-click speed setting

Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos, Mods

Speed up the feel of Windows with the double-click speed setting

by Jason Clarke Apr 28th 2008

Speed is all about perception, so any tip that makes a computer feel faster is gold as far as we're concerned. Today's tip is a doozy from Raymond Chen, the venerable Microsoft developer and blogger.

According to Chen, a number of user interface timers in Windows key off of the double-click speed registry setting.

The default double-click speed in Windows is 500ms , or exactly 1/2 of a second. Try dropping that down to 250ms -- about three-quarters of the way towards Fast -- and watch the rest of Windows feel just a bit snappier, since a number of other Windows user interface timings use that setting as a reference. Cool!

Tags: double-click, double-click-setting, microsoft, raymond-chen, speed-up-windows, windows, windows-speed

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

keeves said 3:05PM on 4-28-2008

Thanks, but sounds like a bit of a rubbish set-up IMO. Why should completely unrelated task rely on what setting that you enter for this?

chrisaroz said 3:31PM on 4-28-2008

It doesn't matter, it FEELS faster, don't overthink it or you'll ruin it for the rest of us!!

Uber_Mexico said 3:53PM on 4-28-2008

I've had it set this way for 3 minutes and I already notice maximizing and minimizing are faster. The animation on the windows going into the bottom bar is timed on this. Major differance, great stuff.

Sensai said 4:43PM on 4-28-2008

Is this kinda how people believe what they're told because everyone else does? Is this a pysch experiment? Am I being monitored?

Eh...fine, I'll do it.

Sensai said 4:46PM on 4-28-2008

Actually, I changed my mind. I'd rather go play some TF2.

Garry Lacey said 6:13PM on 4-28-2008

I tried setting this to the slowest and opening windows, clicking around repeatedly, then set it on a notch off the fastest and tried again and couldn't see any difference.

Which elements in Windows key off this setting?

Jason Clarke said 2:54AM on 4-29-2008

The original article by Raymond Chen that I linked to in the post describes exactly which parts of the Windows UI are affected by the double-click speed setting.

Stuart Halliday said 2:21PM on 4-29-2008

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"DoubleClickSpeed"="900"

Is where it is stored.

Garry Lacey said 8:03AM on 5-02-2008

@Jason Clarke Shame on me for not clicking through to the main article to find this out.

Ukion said 11:54AM on 5-04-2008

Yea, perception is kinda cool, but not in real work. Maybe the better idea is to ask David Copperfield to speed up our OS's :)

Ukion

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