How do I switch mouse buttons?

Q I am an OAP with arthritic fingers. Because of this, I sometimes hit the wrong keys on my laptop and, as a result, I have switched the actions of the mouse's left and right buttons.

The only way I can think to reverse it is to do a System Restore, which seems excessive. Do you know what keys I may have hit and how I can reverse this setting?
Gill Day

A Swapping the actions of the left and right mouse buttons is easy to do, but Windows does not include a keyboard shortcut to do the job.

It is possible that software installed by the laptop's manufacturer includes this functionality but, as you told us nothing else about the PC, we cannot offer any suggestions here. But, as we said, it's simple to swap the mouse button actions in Windows.

If the computer runs Windows XP, click Start followed by Control Panel. Now click the Printers and Other Hardware link followed by the Mouse link. This opens the Mouse Properties dialogue box.

The quickest way to access the same dialogue box in Windows Vista and 7 is to click Start, type mouse into the Search box and then click Mouse when it appears at the top of the Start menu.

Now, it's possible (even likely) that the Mouse Properties dialogue box will have been modified by the laptop manufacturer's own drivers. However, in most cases the option you need will be found on the Buttons tab.

On our Windows XP laptop for example, the relevant option is labelled 'Switch primary and secondary buttons': just click to remove the tick from this. In later versions of Windows, or where manufacturer drivers are in control, look for the option to switch from ‘left-handed' to ‘right-handed' use.