Microsoft Excel: how to disable the "two click" requirement when Excel window doesn't have focus?

In Microsoft Excel, all versions as far as I can tell (office 2007 to 2019), implement window focus differently than any other Windows apps: When Excel does not have focus (i.e. you're using another app) and you click on the Excel window, the first click does nothing except focus the window. No matter where you click, nothing happens. It requires a second click to actually click on whatever you were aiming at the first time. I realize this may be a feature added to help prevent accidental focus changes or deselection of a large range, but it is absolutely maddening to someone who is used to th

Question by Ryan Griggs on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.