It’s nice that with Apple computers you can now run the Windows operating system using Boot Camp, but they don’t tell you how to do things like right-click. For the longest time I didn’t notice any problems because I often have my MacBook Pro hooked up to an external mouse and keyboard, and the mouse has two-buttons just like most standard computer mice. The MacBook Pro, however, has just a single mouse button. When running the Mac OS that’s not a problem because a two-finger tap on the trackpad simulates a right-click, or you can hold down the Control key and click for the same results. What about when running Windows with Boot Camp?
One day I was running Vista in Boot Camp without using my external keyboard and mouse, and that’s when I realized the lack of being able to right-click. I did notice that you could simulate the Delete key by pressing Fn+Backspace, but I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to right-click. Eventually I stumbled across Apple’s rather counter-intuitive method for right-clicking: put two fingers on the trackpad, and then press the mouse button. It’s a bit crazy, but it worked and I was happy.
If you don’t have a trackpad, but are still confined to a one-button mouse in Windows you should checkout the free Apple Mouse Utility (download mirror) written back in 2002. Just download, extract, and run the Apple Mouse Utility. After that you’ll be able to right-click by simply holding down the Control key and pressing the mouse button. The program says that it’s designed for Windows NT/9x, but I tested it in Vista and it works just fine.
it simply blows my mind that apple doesn’t get with the program and switch to a two button mouse. in general, i’ll give them plenty of points for usability, but this is one case where being different is just stupid.
I’m sure you know about the 2 finger scrolling, but did you know that you can zoom in on the mac by holding Ctrl and doing the 2 finger scrolling?
i am using windows xp in my mac book pro using parallels, i have a swiss german key board. in the windowds mode i cant use @ key, have you any idea how to find the @ key in xp. i have check in the net, few people have faced the problem,i have send mails to parallels, but no reply from them. u hv any idea about that. thnkx in advance.
partha
Eww… Mac people have to go through that much trouble to simply perform a right-click?
This is one of those areas that, in my opinion, makes it a little more difficult to switch from using Windows to using a Mac. A right-click button would definitely be nice.
Yep, I did know that actually. Although I believe that is Mac-only (doesn’t work in Boot Camp).
Unfortunately I don’t know how to help you since I have an English keyboard.
Yeah, it’s not optimal, but I do have to say it’s nice being able to do a two-finger tap to right-click.
I’ve become so use to using the Control key for mouse clicks, that when I use a laptop it seems odd having a “right-click” on the trackpad. One hand is near or remains on my keyboard anyway, so I just use my pinky or inex finger to hit the key .
I guess it’s all what you are use to
This article really only pertains to the laptop trackpad, not mice. Apple’s standard mouse, the Mighty Mouse, has four “buttons”, which are really user defined touch-sensitive areas, so it can be a one, two, three, or four button mouse — whichever you prefer. Additionally, the scroll ball does horizontal and vertical, or 360 scrolling. I guess it’s almost as high-tech as that MS mouse that came with my PC
Still… It’s all a matter of personal preference.
Meh. Over-edited that last comment, and it doesn’t read anything like I meant it to. Sure wish there was an edit/delete comment function. Anyway, what I meant to type was: I’ve become so use to using the Control key for mouse clicking on Macs, that it seems strange having a “right-click” available to me when using a PC laptop.
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I’ve actually gotten used to the two-finger tap-to-click on the Mac trackpad. When I’m using Windows in Boot Camp, or on a PC, I find myself pressing the right-click button when I meant to press the left-click. That’s because having the one large single mouse button has caused me to click the right-side of the button.
I noticed that the “swiss german” keyboard layout is slightly different in MacOS and in Windows. Squared brackets, curly braces, the backslash and the @-sign are at different places. In MacOS you type option-G, whereas in Windows you would type ctrl-alt(option)-2 for the @-sign.
HTH
Hi Partha,
Use Alt gr + “q” instead of Alt gr + “l”. I accidentally found this out yesterday (zum Glück!)
wow…this is an awesome tip…really appreciate it. Thank you!!!
Thanks for the tip. It took me about an hour to find out how to right click using my MacBook running Vista. I was beginning to wonder if it could be done at all!