How to remap mouse buttons on Windows 10

Remapping keyboard keys isn’t the easiest thing to do but there are a myriad of apps available that can make it easier. If nothing else, you can use AutoHotKey to remap keys. With a mouse, you normally have two buttons, and one scroll wheel that you can click with. All three perform essential functions so it’s not like you have a button to spare. That said, you can buy a mouse that has six (or more) buttons and you might need to customize what some of them do. Here’s how you can remap mouse buttons on Windows 10.

Remap mouse buttons

There’s no shortage of free apps that can remap mouse buttons however, if you’re using a mouse that has more than the usual number of buttons, it is possible that it comes with a special driver or app that lets you remap the buttons. If there’s no companion app that goes with your mouse, or it doesn’t support button remapping, or you’re just using an ordinary mouse, you can use X-Mouse Button Control to remap mouse buttons.

Out of the box, Windows 10 lets you switch the primary click button on a mouse but nothing else.

Download X-Mouse Button Control. It has both an installable version, and a portable version. Pick whichever you want to use and run the app.

By default, the app will list mouse buttons that you can modify. Your mouse may not have all these buttons but the app will list them anyway. Open the dropdown next to the button that you want to remap.

You should go through the entire list of items in the dropdown. It lists quite a few common actions that you might want one of the buttons on your mouse to execute. Select them and click Apply.

If the list of actions don’t have what you need the button to do, open the dropdown and select the ‘Simulated Keystrokes’ option. In the window that opens, enter the keyboard shortcut that you want to execute. You will need to follow the syntax given in the same window. It’s fairly easy to follow and tells you how to use modifier keys, and other buttons to enter a keyboard shortcut.

You should also look over the options in the ‘How to send the simulated key strokes’ dropdown and decide when the shortcut should be executed. Click Ok, and then Apply on the main app’s window.

X-Mouse Button Control supports multiple profiles so if you need to modify mouse buttons for certain apps, you can create a profile and use it only for that particular app.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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