Disable two-finger click for right click, but keep two-finger tap

Question

Symptoms:

• Go into TouchPad settings and disable "Press the lower right corner of the touchpad to right click"

• Also disable "Tap with two fingers to right click"

Then--while holding your tracking finger (e.g. middle finger) on the TouchPad, click with your clicking finger (e.g. index finger) and release. Observe it is interpreted as a right click, despite the disablements above.

At least it does now--as far as I can tell this is something that just happened in a recent Windows Update...on both a Surface Book and Lenovo Yoga 720. I haven't changed how I use the touchpad in any way. And for how my fingers work, it misfires very frequently...thinking my moving tracking finger not being fully lifted when clicking intends a right click menu. I see no way to disable this interpretation.

I'm fine using two-finger tap for right click. The non-configurable lower-right click region never works for how my hand is placed, so I've had to live with this for quite some time. But not this thing I assume must be new (because I never had trouble with it before, nor knew there was a "two-finger click"). Being sure to pull my tracking finger completely off the trackpad to completely clear it for the click is not something I can (or want) to retrain myself to do--too inefficient.

Can people confirm that this is the case on their machines too, and is there any way to disable "two-finger click for right click" and only enable "two-finger tap for right click"?

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0.16299 Build 16299

Solution

I had a Yoga 2 Pro with Synaptics Touchpad and Windows 8. The dedicated app had options for both 2-finger tap and 2-finger click, but making changes through the app simply did not work after updating to Windows 10.

If you have a newer device that makes use of the Windows Precision touchpad drivers, you'll find the 2-finger tap option in the Touchpad settings. But there isn't anything for two finger pressing.

This is how I came to discover the registry options 2FingerTapAction and TwoFingerPressButtonAction. If you have a Synaptics device, you should be able to find these buried in your registry:

• Open the Run dialog by pressing the Windows key + R
• Type in "Regedit" and press Enter. Once in the Registry editor, either navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2#### or press CTRL + F and search for "2FingerTapAction" or "TwoFingerPressButtonAction"
• Once you've found the the appropriate key in the right-hand panel, double click it and change the value to a 2.
• Restart your computer.

For many other TouchPad devices, you should find the option in the device-specific options program. You can often get to this program via a tray icon next to your clock. Common ones are Elan Smart-Pad, Synaptics Click/Touch/LuxPad, Dell Touchpad, and ALPS Control Panel.

(Note: A good application for digging around in the registry and searching it quickly to look for terms like Touch/Press/Finger is NirSoft RegScanner, if you are having trouble with Windows RegEdit.)

Comments

[DavidPostill]

"is there any way to disable "two-finger click for right click" and only enable "two-finger tap for right click"?" Wait, you want it disabled and enabled at the same time? Please clarify. What is the difference between a click and a tap?

[HostileFork says dont trust SE]

@DavidPostill "What is the difference between a click and a tap". Don't know if you're serious about not knowing what a click and a tap difference is, but there's a sensor in the touchpad which sufficient pressure will click. Tapping is a light touch and removal, less pressure. My question is clear that I am experiencing a phenomenon of deliberate two finger clicking even when "tap with two fingers to right click" is disabled. It happens sporadically if I don't do it intentionally, but the fact that I have 100% repeated behavior if I do it intentionally indicates there is a difference.

[Ravindra Bawane]

@HostileFork, your username checks out. Some touchpads only have "tap", while others have the mechanical function of clicking as well, which requires a firmer press and results in the touchpad depressing and "clicking". This is not an obvious difference for someone whose computer is the mechanically simpler tap-only. It is also useful when writing questions to recognize some people may come from a different context and may not immediately recognize the specifics indicated by the words you've used to describe the issue. We don't tend to joke here either, in order to avoid potential confusion.

[HostileFork says dont trust SE]

@music2myear I was being factual and assuming good faith by responding to the comment, exactly as you say. But it seemed my question was perfectly clear. If not--then we have now clarified that in my case, I'm at least talking about the mechanical clicking kind.

[HostileFork says dont trust SE]

Sounds great, but unfortunately all my Yoga 720 says is "HID Compliant TouchPad"...searching finds no registry settings related to it. (The Surface Book is in for repair right now, which is why I got the Yoga, so I can't check that.) Seems two-finger click is hardwired as right click in my case, probably beyond software control...I'll just have to do "all tap". I'm curious though--since presumably all the Synaptics dedicated app did was edit registry keys, does it really obey your setting for TwoFingerPressButtonAction? Can you truly enable and disable it at will after the OS update?