DoubleClickjacking: A New type of web hacking technique

Double clicking on the web is extremely common with older less technically adept users. This same cohort is also the most susceptible to scams.

This. I have told my eighty-year-old parents this many times over the years, but it doesn't seem to stick.

I see a lot of people doubleclicking on the web. Both young and old.

I’ve tried to explain it many times too, but I can’t really articulate a good, comprehensive rule for when to single and when to double click.

Another obvious case of double click is to select all text in a given area. This one is a bit more obscure though.

Edit: Actually that's generally I guess triple click. Double to select a word.

Another complicating factor that many less-tech-literate don't have a good internal model for is window focus. I've seen several people try and single-click on a not focused web button, only for nothing to happen. When they click again, the button is activated. They then learn to always double click that button.

Having a mental model of "this button needs to be double clicked" gets them the result they want, even if that's not a very accurate reflection of the computer.

When you're on windows and not in the browser, you double-click to launch a file or program in the Explorer (which also is what runs the desktop). Single-click is select.

So, the rule:

List of files on your computer or desktop? Double-click. Otherwise? Don't.

What if I’m opening an email in Outlook? What if I’m looking at something in Control Panel? (That one’s a trick question, since the answer has changed in modern Windows versions.)

In theory: if you’re clicking on a UI element that has some notion of being selected, then a single-click selects it, and you need a double-click to take an action on it. If there’s no notion of selection, then a single click takes an action.

In practice: adherence to this ranges from perfect to abysmal. And users who don’t understand the computer well may not know how to think about whether a given UI element is selectable or not.

I'd say don't do that. Who reads emails?

Although seriously, I find I never break out of the preview in Outlook email. The only spot in Outlook where I really need to double-click is the calendar. Which is annoying.