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I've just got my Arc Touch Mouse. It has a touch panel instead of the wheel.

By default you can scroll by swiping your finger on the touch panel. Tapping ends of the panel sends Page Up and Page Down and double tapping in the middle of the panel acts as middle click.

The last one is irritating. I use middle click quite often and I don't like that I have to double tap specific area for a single click, especially when I want to click multiple times in a row. I know that I can disable Page Up/Down in Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, but it won't let me to configure single tap for middle click.

Googling yielded nothing useful. I don't find AHK workaround comfortable.

Is it possible to enable single tap middle click, preferably enable entire touch surface? Please note that I'm talking about MS Arc Touch Mouse, not MS Touch Mouse (which doesn't have middle button at all). This is the one I have:

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse

Clarification, because I'm getting a lot of answers about remapping buttons:

Remapping is possible with the software that Microsoft provides. The problem is that for the computer to detect middle click, you have to double tap the touch panel on mouse. Computer doesn't seem to even be aware of single taps.

TL;DR: By default, to middle-click you have to tap twice. I want to tap once.

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    the link your providing for the workaround is broken (404), I assume you looked at "Mouse and Keyboard Center 2.7" software, I tried downloading and running it but couldn't cause it checks for a compatible mouse. so try it if you haven't already. tried reading through the PDFs, nothing helpful there. Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 20:49
  • @MaherFattouh, I've updated the link.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 21:57
  • I believe this is a "feature" and done by design. If you were to scroll through a page, your finger would naturally run over the middle click indentation. I believe (though I'm not confident) that this could register as a middle-click. I've been using the same mouse for about two years ago, and tried to find the same solution previously with no luck. I do hope that you find a solution-- if not, I think you'll still enjoy the mouse if you're willing to get used to this nuance. Commented May 24, 2016 at 19:05
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    "That's not a bug, it is a feature" was coined at Microsoft.
    – SDsolar
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 1:38
  • Many MS mouses don't have middle click at all (wedge, touch), so I guess that's kind of MS signature move.
    – Agent_L
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 20:04

5 Answers 5

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It is probably too late to answer five years after asking... There is an option now that is documented and supported by MS to simulate a standard middle click with one tap using Three Finger Click. Not sure it was an option that times. Also not sure it is much more comfortable to perform a single tap with three finger rather than double tap anything. But hope it helps those who stumble upon this answer. It just works and supported.

All you need for this is two following steps (no reboot):

I've found the answer here in the forum post of 2018 in MS Community.

This is how this setting looks like: looks like

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    Interesting. I'm sure this feature wasn't available back when I asked the question. I've replaced the mouse since, but thank you anyway.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 11:59
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    This is not the answer. It is clearly stated in the op that the question is for the ARC mouse, not the TOUCH mouse, which this answer is referring to.
    – Seth B
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 17:30
  • This is another model, it won't work.
    – jTiKey
    Commented Mar 28 at 23:19
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I don't have an arc mouse, so I can't do this myself, but I would use some kind of listener hook to find what input is passed from the driver when the "single" middle click you are looking to use is pressed. You could try looking at event viewer (search for event viewer after pressing the windows key) as you press the middle mouse, or try looking at code generated by Microsoft IntelliPoint's macro record program. XMBC has a built in listener (buttons are highlighted yellow when pressed), but it only listens for a standard set of buttons, so I'm guessing that the single middle click doesn't register there.

If it were me, I would start a keyboard/mouse hook script in AHK, do a single middle mouse "click", then view the key history to see what input is being mapped. Use this AHK webpage (scroll all the way down to the Special Keys section) for a tutorial on how to do that.

Making the remapping script is straightforward - I would link an example but my currently low rep on this site prevents that at present. The first result in a google search for "AHK mapping mouse as keyboard" without quotes should get you there.

Another possible workaround is to make a script that maps a keyboard button you don't use often to "middle mouse click" and use that script when you use programs that require a middle mouse click for navigation.

Let me know if you need help making an AHK script, or you can find many examples of such a script via Google search.

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  • I don't have that mouse right now, so I can't test it, but I pessimistically suspect that there's absolutely no input from single taps. I'll let you know when I get my hands on it again.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Aug 13, 2016 at 9:12
  • It could be mapped as a special key or joystick axis, which a listener would probably catch.
    – Zediiiii
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 22:08
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If I remember correctly from my lost arc touch mouse, you only need to single-tap for the page up and down

if this is true, you can use AHK to pass a middle click and I believe nullify the original page up/down key-press, I haven't used AHK for a while.

one AHK script that may help you with that is the middle click simulator here : AHK Mouse Wheel Emulator

If I remember incorrectly, you can use the precompiled script to use both left and right click to middle click

in my opinion, it was a design flaw of Microsoft's mouse and software

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  • That will break PageUp/Down on my keyboard, right? If so, that's not an option.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Dec 20, 2016 at 21:32
  • it will, i haven't used microsofts software for it but you migh be able to remap page down do something else that you don't use like... F13 (yes it does exist, i have seen one in real life)
    – DanHolli
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 20:46
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There is a free program either for Windows 10 or the Lenovo called UltraNav which allows you extra options for the mouse and to turn the touchpad on and off. Hope this helps. I think this might work for any variety of mouse. It's worth a try as it's free.

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  • Can you expand your answer a bit? Just mentioning a product doesn't really explain how to accomplish the solution, and it's often viewed as spam. It's better to include some instructions on how to use the product to solve the problem, or at least describe what makes the product a good solution. Include a link to the product. Good guidance on recommending software here: meta.superuser.com/questions/5329/…. Thanks.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 1:45
  • UltraNav is a modified Synaptics touchpad driver software for Thinkpads. I don't think installing it even makes sense if you don't have a Thinkpad and how it would be related to this Microsoft mouse.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 16:46
  • I thought this might be a long shot but worth trying. Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 11:16
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change the mouse settings in"control panel"-"mouse".If the hardware is installed it should support it.

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  • Microsoft's driver software does allow remapping middle button to other one, but it's still triggered by double tap.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 10:50

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