microsoft / microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml

TextBox: Double-clicking the empty area after text does not select the closest word

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area-TextBox bug needs-triage
Dominant language
C++
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Description

*This content was largely generated by AI. AI makes mistakes.*

### Describe the bug

Double-clicking the empty area after the text in a WinUI `TextBox` does not select any text. The expected behavior is to select the closest word, rather than requiring the pointer to be directly over the word.

### Why is this important?

Users expect to use double-click to select text for editing. Ignoring double-clicks in the unused portion of a text field makes selection less convenient and inconsistent with the behavior requested in the related UniGetUI report below.

### Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Display a `TextBox` that is wide enough to leave empty space after its text.
2. Enter `Hello world`.
3. Double-click the empty area to the right of `world`, inside the `TextBox`.

This is a minimal scenario for the reported behavior; a standalone reproduction project has not been attached.

### Actual behavior

No text is selected when double-clicking the empty area.

### Expected behavior

Select the closest word, which is `world` in this example, as if the user had double-clicked that word directly.

### Screenshots

Not provided.

### NuGet package version

Not yet recorded.

### Windows version

Not yet recorded.

### Additional context

The same symptom was reported in [UniGetUI #4160: Allow double clicking empty space in searchbox](https://github.com/Devolutions/UniGetUI/issues/4160).

That report specifically requests selecting the closest word when double-clicking the empty area after the text. The UniGetUI maintainer [closed it as not planned on October 5, 2025, attributing the behavior to WinUI](https://github.com/Devolutions/UniGetUI/issues/4160#issuecomment-3369188731). This issue tracks the behavior in the WinUI repository.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with a minimal WinUI TextBox reproduction using the reported steps, comparing a double-click directly on “world” with one in the empty area after it. Confirm the expected closest-word selection and inspect the relevant TextBox pointer and selection behavior; no source file or test is named in the report, and done means the empty-area double-click selects “world”.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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