Thanks for the reply Stuey. Unfortunately, it was set to double-click. Also, it's not folders that are closing. It is all the programs I try to bring up on the screen. They keep minimizing as soon as I move the mouse off of them and go back to the task bar.
I have a new computer and somewhere along the line while installing updates to windows 7 I think I accidentally configured my multi-window display settings in a terribly annoying way. If I have one window open full screen and then open another window from the task bar half-screen to view it, it...