On my laptop (HP, running XP), suddenly whenever I left click it pops up with the right click menu (open, open in tab, etc.). Does anyone have any experience with how to fix this?
I tried going to properties-mouse, but the box is unchecked that says “switch left and right click”
What kind of mouse are you using? Are you using a trackpad or trackball, or do you have a true mouse plugged into it?
Does right clicking also bring up the right-click menu? Or does it now function as a left click?
It might be worth checking to see if any keys are stuck down; in particular, any laptop-specific function keys. I haven’t seen this myself, but it seems plausible that some laptops may have a special key that changes left clicks into right clicks. And in my experience, laptop keyboards tend to stick more often than regular keyboards. You can often unstick a key by tapping it firmly and quickly.
I had a similar issue earlier today in firefox. Everything I clicked on either opened in a new tab, or brought up the save as menu.
Turns out my cat was leaning on the alt & ctrl keys when she was sat on my lap - perhaps check your non-mouse keys & see if any of them are sticking?
I second (third) the sticky key theory. I sometimes get similar weird mouse behaviour due to a sticky Alt key on my work PC.
Or it could be a Windows accessibility feature called StickyKeys - have a look in Control Panel>Accessibility>Keyboard to make sure this isn’t switched on.