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Well, I can't remember everything...

Saturday 30 June 2012

Adding a middle click to a Synaptics touch pad

This will allow you to press both track pad buttons simultaneously to produce a middle click.  Great for opening a new tab in your browser!

  1. Run the registry editor (regedit)
  2. Go to key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\Defaults\
  3. Here create a new key as a DWORD and name it as 'HasBothButtonFeature' without the quotes and set the value to 1.
  4. Log off and Log on again
stolen from here

You can also enable 2 finger tap or 3 finger tap to middle or right click

This is a per-user registry setting

Depending on your touchpad model, replace TouchPadPS2 with TouchPadSMB2c. You can check Device Manager to figure out which one you need; it will be listed under Mice and other pointing devices.
  1. Run the registry editor (regedit)
  2. Go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2\
  3. Edit the 2FingerTapAction or 3FingerTapAction
    • Change the value to "2" for right click
    • Change the value to "4" for middle click
    • Log off and Log on again
    If you use the 3 finger tap action, you may need to do the following or the mouse pointer will freeze when you 3 finger tap. It seems to affect the latest versions of the Synaptics driver.

    1. Run the registry editor (regedit)
    2. Go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2\ 
    3. Edit 3FingerTapPluginID and clear the SynTP string
    4. Change the value of 3FingerTapPluginActionID to "0"

    8 comments:

    1. Paul, where did you get those values? I wanted to customize my gestures but I find no documentation on how modifying the registries, which names and values should I use for each action...

      ReplyDelete
    2. I found the middle click setting on the site I've linked, the tap actions I just stumbled across. If you Google for "synaptics registry settings" you'll get a bunch of sites with various tips and tweaks. Examples below

      http://teamwindows8.com/2013/02/how-to-enable-synaptic-chiral-scrolling-option-in-windows-8/
      http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-enable-or-disable-touchpad-gestures-in-windows-8/

      ReplyDelete
    3. hey just to add on to you, i managed to get it working by editing also
      the same values (2FingerTapAction) but at this place:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadSMB2c

      ReplyDelete
    4. Thank you so much. I had to modify it in both TouchPadSMB2c and TouchPadPS2 to have it working. It didn't take effect until I restarted.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Thanks for the tip! I think it must depend on how the touchpad appears in device manager in Windows. Older touchpads appear as Synaptics PS/2, recent laptops have Synaptics SMBus

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    5. Is it possible to do the same with 3 fingers press?
      thanks!

      ReplyDelete
    6. You can assign commands to the 3 finger press, or 3 finger tap. I currently have it assigned to a "right click"
      Just look for 3FingerTapAction, and set it accordingly

      ReplyDelete
    7. Works like a charm with the newest Synaptics driver on my Lenovo Ideapad, thanks a ton:)

      ReplyDelete