The middle button on a mouse is typically used for scrolling through File Explorer with tons or file or long pages on the web. But did you know that it can do more than just scrolling? Today we will talk about using the Touchpad & Mouse middle click button on Windows for more tasks. Laptops, however, come with touchpads, and none of them have a middle mouse button. But you can also perform a mouse-like middle-click on a laptop.
Using the Touchpad & Mouse middle-click button
Most of us use the middle button of the mouse to scroll and click on links to open in a new tab. What most don’t know that middle button can be customized to perform a different operation. It can be closing of the current tab tailored to be used in games for a particular action and so on.
Customize Middle-click button of Mouse
1] Via Windows 10 Settings
Go to Settings > Devices > Mouse. Here you can choose between
- Scroll multiple lines or scroll the full screen.
- Customize how many lines to scroll each time.
- Scroll inactive windows when hovered over them.
Under Advanced Settings for mouse, you can choose to increase the scroll speed (vertical and horizontal) as well. You can even make it make it auto-scroll.
2] Via Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center
Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center allows you to customize middle button actions and create app specific settings extensively. You can change the middle click button action to:
- Execute Windows commands
- Double Click
- Gaming commands such as precision booster, gaming toggle, quick turn
- Browser commands
- Document commands
- Execute Macros.
Macros are especially interesting. It allows you to use multiple keys together.
Make sure to be careful when choosing what actions you perform both using Macros, and when using application specific.
You can also choose to customize Wheel behavior to perform click actions. After doing this, you actually can have a four-button arrangement to accomplish almost anything.
3] Using Freeware
XMouse Button Control (XMBC) allows you to create an application and window specific profiles. You can customize the middle click to do differently on Chrome while using it to mute a music player and so on. This software is actively developed and can help you use middle click effectively on Windows 10.
How to Middle-click on a Laptop Touchpad
While touchpads are very useful, they aren’t effective when it comes to scrolling. Every OEM offer their solution. There are two ways of doing this depending on what kind of Touchpad you have. Broadly speaking there are two. Precision Touchpads and Standard Touchpads.
1] Emulate middle-click on Precision Touchpad
It is easy to figure out if you have a precision touchpad. Go to Settings > Devices > Touchpad. Look for a text which says “Your PC has a precision touchpad.” If that’s a yes, here is what you need to do next.
- In the touchpad settings, scroll down till you see“Three-finger gestures.”
- Under Swipes you can change it to Middle mouse button.
Now the next time you swipe, it will perform middle mouse button actions, i.e., tap the touch with three fingers at the same time. It might look different depending on the company to company.
2] Emulate middle-click on a Normal Touchpad
On a regular touchpad, things are a little tricky. The current trend to emulate middle-click on a regular touchpad is when you press both the buttons of touchpad together.
If this doesn’t work, then go to Control Panel > Mouse > Pen & Touch and check if the OEM has added an option for middle-button.
If you have a Synaptic TouchPad or can install SynapticTouchpad Driver on your laptop as follows:
- Open Synaptics TouchPad configuration screen
- Navigate to Tapping > Tap Zones > Bottom left actions > select Middle Click.
3] Using freeware
The last option is using AutoHotKey. AutoHotKey is a program or script which capture native codes or machine codes for input device action, and then redirect it to perform something. Create a script with these:
~LButton & RButton::MouseClick, Middle
~RButton & LButton::MouseClick, Middle
However, do remember it has its flaw. Check this thread for modifications which you can try.
Middle Button Actions on Chrome and Firefox
Apart from using it for scroll, and opening links in new tab, the middle button acts like CTRL+Left click. It opens a new tab. So when you click on the back button using middle-click, it opens the previous page in a new tab. The same happens for the forward button, refresh button, bookmark or bookmark group. If you perform a middle click on an auto-suggest entry, it will open the result in a new tab.
This post pretty much sums up what all you can do with Middle-click button. We have covered right from changing middle button actions to using macros to enabling middle-click on laptops.
