Mouse problem, older computer (XP, work, click, remove)

[robertpasa]

My friend has an older computer with XP.

Sometimes when you click on something like a Close Window button (X) for IE, or the Start button, the computer will completely ignore it. Then you try again right away, and it works.

However, if you're in one web page (like youtube), and click on different links, it always works okay.

The problem may be the mouse itself, but it seems almost like Windows itself has something wrong with it. The computer is slow when you start but okay later on. I've tried to remove unneeded processes but there are still a lot.

Any ideas what the problems might be?

[robertpasa]

I was recently using regedit and Windows Explorer, but the mouse clicks always work okay there. The prob seems to be more when you click on the close button for an IE window.

[robertpasa]

There's an idea in Windows called focus, where only one window at a time has focus, and will respond to the next mouse click. The window that has focus will have the title bar normal, but the other windows will all have a dimmed title bar.

I think the current "mouse problem" might be related to focus - that is, when an IE window has focus (and looks like it has focus) XP briefly thinks it DOESN"T have focus. It's almost as if some invisible other program thinks it has focus. I have no idea if this is what is happening.