WordPress contains 2 media up-loaders. The Flash uploader allows the selection of multiple files while the browser uploader only allows 1 file at a time.
To disable the Flash uploader add the following filter to functions.php
add_filter('flash_uploader', create_function('$flash', 'return false;'));
EDIT
After further investigation it’s probably not a great idea to use create_function. A beter way to remove the filter would be:
function disable_flash_uplaoder() {
return $flash = false;
}
add_filter( 'flash_uploader', 'disable_flash_uploader', 7 );