I am trying to turn off the sound of the mouse clicking. How is this done?

how do you mean mouse clicking?

is it when you open or close a programme

I mean that whenever I click the mouse, it makes a clicking sound. I have Windows Media Player on, listening to a CD. But I also have the clicking sound whenever I click the left mouse button (or right for that matter).

have you been to sounds and checked for any action that has "Windows XP Start" that's a clicking sound.

what is the step by step process for removing the sound. I want to make an event stop signalling with the noise. How do I turn that event off?

ok, there are two possible choices here. One is, whenever you click the mouse, it's supposed to click, you can't turn it off because its a natural sound. Another is, try looking in Mouse Properties in windows XP, maybe something will be there.

have you tried ..start......settings........Control Panel .....
sounds and audio devices.............Sounds and at the bottom you should see program events, the sound for each event/action can be turned on or off there

Following brain_damage's path I think what you want to turn off is:

Windows Explorer > Start Navigation