Can I change the right mouse button function?

Q My four-year-old daughter loves playing on the computer but has problems remembering which button she should press, and telling her to use the left one doesn’t help because she isn’t confident at remembering which is which.

I’ve tried marking the mouse button but the ink kept rubbing off. Is there any way of disabling the right-hand mouse button?

Tony Evans

A Some software designed for children can be set to ignore the right mouse button but that doesn’t help all the time.

If you have a Microsoft mouse, the simplest solution is to take advantage of the Intellipoint software. This can set the right mouse button to the same function as the left.

Click on the Start button and then Control Panel. Click on Printers and Other Hardware if you have Category mode enabled, and double-click on Mouse.

For Vista and Windows 7, click on the Start button and type mouse. Press Enter when the Mouse icon appears. Click on the Buttons tab and then on the dropdown menu for the Right-button. Select ‘Click’. Click on OK to save the changes.

Sadly, this change won’t work with a non-Microsoft Mouse, even if you have Intellipoint installed. Instead some software called Autohotkey can quickly convert right-clicks into left-clicks before Windows realises.

Autohotkey can be downloaded here. Once it has been installed, you need to create a script that will adjust the mouse button. Don’t worry as this process is very simple.

Click on the Start button and then All Programs. Right-click on Autohotkey and then left-click on Open.

We want to open the Folder in the Start menu and create the script there. Right-click on an empty part of the folder and then left-click on New and AutoHotkey Script. Change the name to LeftButton being careful to leave the .ahk at the end of the file name. Right-click on this file and then left-click on Edit Script.

The script will now open in Notepad. Move down to the bottom and type the following command RButton::click. Save and close this file.

To start the script and change the right mouse button, click on the Start menu, then All Programs, AutoHotkey and then LeftButton.

A small green icon with a white H will appear in the Notification Area to show that a script is running and you will find that the right button works as the left. The right button won’t be a complete replacement, though, because you won’t be able to click and drag.

Normally to stop a script, you would right-click on the icon in the Notification Area but, of course, that won’t work because that’s what has just been disabled. The solution is to hold down the Ctrl button and right-click it.

Baffled by jargon? See our free online Jargon Buster.