Just had my Dad on the phone, his Windows XP has just started to do strange things.

If you click on any short-cut on the desktop that would normally open programmes all it does is open the 'Properties' dialogue box.

When you click on 'Start' ' All Programmes' then put your cursor onto the list of programmes it just goes straight back to the desktop, whether you click on it, or just put your cursor over it.

Virus? Tends to be my thought. AVG is up to date .... He can't click on anything to try a full scan with either AVG or Adaware or anything else.

Ideas on a postcard please

sounds like virus,unfortunatlly AVG is a free lunch so it might have left a door open.

Mine went potty after i finally rid the dam thing of AOL,it seemed to have a mind of its own i ended up re setting the PC clock back a week and it seems ok now.

adaware found nothing and neither did spybot search and destroy,it was a wierd one

Change keyboard, it's possible his alt key is stuck on.

I'd put my money on a stuck key as well.

I had one with a stuck tab key not long ago. That drove me crazy till I worked out what was going on

He hasn't changed the mouse to left handed has he?

My thoughts exactly, my mate had a similar problem and one of the kids had been messing with settings. Another good one was when they speeded the click setting up so you couldn't click fast enough to open anything. They thought faster was better.

It was the Alt button - cheers chaps

Its great when its an easy (and cheap) fix isn't it!

I had the exact same problem (Alt key) - drove me mad until someone on here suggested the solution