How can I emulate middle click in Windows on a touchpad?

On my laptop, the touchpad drivers for it allowed me to emulate middle click by clicking both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time. I'd like to have the same feature on with my netbook's touchpad. How might I go about doing this?

スーパーファミコン

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 4 719

I did exactly this using an AutoHotkey script at http://superuser.com/q/1029053/276424 which should do what you want and more. In particular, if you press both left and right mouse buttons within a certain time limit, it generates a middle mouse press, which will be released only if you release both left and right mouse buttons. The script also can be used to provide right-click-drag scrolling if wanted.

– user21820 – 2016-01-21T11:27:18.037

Try Shift+Left click instead. Works on Windows 10. Credit: https://superuser.com/a/326102/439537

– Andrew – 2019-04-04T15:45:11.367

Answers

Try this: Middle Click Simulator (direct download link)

Alternatively, have you tried installing he Synaptics Touchpad drivers?

Charles Roper

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 9 646

Another way also was create the DWORD key HasBothButtonFeature under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\Defaults in regedit and set it to 1 and reboot (source). This works with the middle click simulator :)

– Wilf – 2015-01-25T21:41:49.227

It's an ALPS touchpad. I found out that after installing the manufacturer's driver I had to reboot in order to get the extra functions like enabling emulated middle click. Thanks, though. – スーパーファミコン – 2009-07-26T20:54:51.023

Did the middle click simulator exe not work for you? – Charles Roper – 2009-07-27T07:55:21.373

I added a direct link to the download. – Charles Roper – 2009-07-27T07:57:27.250

Well I found out that the manufaturer's touchpad driver had an option to emulate middle click, but the built in windows touchpad driver did not. – スーパーファミコン – 2009-07-27T14:05:13.737

The utility works sometimes, but not always (e.g. to close a Chrome tab, you must first click right, then left, and in Visual Studio it doesn't work at all). – dbkk101 – 2010-05-14T18:38:25.133

I experimented with the Middle Click Simulator as well. Using it to open a firefox link in a new tab is clumsy because if you left-click first it causes the original tab to visit the link, and then when the right click triggers the middle click you get the new tab. Middle Click Simulator did not work at all inside the blender 3d modeling app. – Mutant Bob – 2017-01-03T21:02:45.593

@MutantBob: Maybe you should try my AutoHotkey script in the linked post? I wrote it precisely because the Synaptics driver is very lousy. You have to change leftrighttomiddle:=1 to emulate middle-click. If you don't have a middle-button you should try rightbuttonscroll:=1 so that you can hold down the right-button to scroll. It should scroll when you expect and you should still be able to click by pressing the left and right buttons together. You can change the parameters to your liking, and feel free to ask me if you can't get it. – user21820 – 2017-02-19T18:35:35.083

I can't remember all the different solutions I tried, but none of them worked well enough. I returned the laptop for a refund. – Mutant Bob – 2017-02-22T16:33:50.200

1Two things on the Synaptics drivers - the link does not work, and the quite a few of those drivers don't have this option :( - however the Middle Click simulator works great, thank you. I will try and set a task for it to start on login. – Wilf – 2014-03-30T00:26:58.927

I had a similar problem with a UX31 Zenbook from asus. They removed the ability to emulate a middle click. Once Elantech driver has been installed to replace the asus driver. Type "regedit" in the windows task bar.

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Elantech/Smartpad Double click Tap_Three_Finger_ShowItem and enter the value 1 instead of 0. Double click Tap_Three_Finger and enter the value 2 instead of 0.

Then open "control panel" and "mouse" (in the small or large icone list)... In the tab ELAN under Options (one finger/Taper, you will find the three fingers option you are looking for)

Hope that it will help because it was a bit cumbersome for me...

Eric

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 51

Perhaps try the latest ALPS touchpad drivers then?

Though I reckon you're looking for a hacked version of the drivers that support it for sure

Ivo Flipse

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 24 054

I actually made something for this using AutoHotkey a while back and figured I'd share it here as well: Mouse Wheel Emulator

I think this works better than the solution in the accepted answer by using mouse chording which prevents unintended mouse up events.

It also emulates mouse wheel scrolling by moving the mouse around while holding the left and right mouse buttons.

blah238

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 263

I'm using MSI CX61 2OD and was able to enable these options in elantech touchpad settings by editing registry.There are some hints for this Unlocking Elan Touchpad Gestures.

Basically for enabling 2 and 3 fingers taps I edited values in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elantech\SmartPad

like Tap_Three_Finger_Enable set to 1 and Tap_Three_Finger_ShowItem set to 1, same for Two_Finger. After that I saw new settings added in touchpad settings for two and three finger taps.

Hope that helps someone else.

BTW I enabled middle click in ubuntu using this hint

Dmitriy

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 111

I ain't sure if it's related to updated windows or different driver, but now I can choose middle click in Settings -> Devices -> Touch Pad -> Three-Finger Gesture -> Taps (or in four fingers tap)

Ohad Cohen

Posted 2009-07-26T15:10:24.203

Reputation: 239