[Win 11] Select on hover (for icons, not windows)

Hi guys,

With Win 7, I'm really used to the single-click mode + hover to focus (hovering on a window selects it).
So on Win 11, I have enabled both these options. That part works.

However, on Win 7 I can just hover on any icon and it will get selected.



On Win 11 hovering on an icon (be it on the desktop or in any Explorer window) does nothing:

• On the desktop it does nothing,
• In any Explorer window, it displays a tooltip with info, but the icon still doesn't get selected.

How can that be changed? Thank you.

I'm not sure if this is what you want.

Turn On or Off Activate Window by Hovering Over with Mouse Pointer in Windows 11 Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum

Sorry, it's not. I had already visited that link, and unless I'm wrong it's only meant for windows, not icons.

Is that what you say?

Jose Hidalgo said:

on Win 7 I can just hover on any icon and it will get selected.

Click to expand...

I think that was an AeroPeek feature that went out with Windows 10, or earlier.
Now you have to click n drag the mouse a bit, or use checkboxes...

I thought this is it, but the desktop icons are being selected just by hovering the mouse over them, I'm not clicking, I just clicked once to open the folder.
This option is in the folder options, click to open, point to select.

Oooh, I get it now! @Alex__ASSR is right! @Edwin, the feature is still there!

Indeed it's right there in the folder options: click to open, point to select. I shouldn't have missed that.
I'm sorry, I thought that feature had been lost between W7 and W11 and that some external tool or registry hack could bring it back.
Turns out it's still there.

For the record, for the feature to work, the folder must have focus first. Here's two examples:

EXAMPLE 1:

• Two windows side to side (A and B)
• Window A has focus (= it's selected)
• I can point to select any window A item
• However, I can't do it with window B items: window B must have focus first

EXAMPLE 2:

• One window (A) and some icons directly on the desktop
• Window A has focus
• I can point to select any window B item
• However, pointing on desktop items will have no effect: desktop (which is a folder too) must have focus first, so we have to click on an empty part of the desktop first

Those two examples are slightly different. Why?

• In example 1, hovering over window B is enough for it to get focus
• In example 2, hovering over desktop is NOT enough for it to get focus: we must click on an empty part of it first, otherwise it will never get focus! That's only one of the many Windows weirdnesses...