Right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse in Windows XP.

Written on April 07, 2006 by Rich Trouton and 29 people have commented

After setting up an Intel iMac with XP, courtesy of Boot Camp, I noticed a nice little feature that Apple added to XP for the Mighty Mouse. If you click on the front right-side of the Mighty Mouse in XP, you’ll get the contextual menu to pop up just like if you had a two-button mouse and you right-clicked. It took me a few minutes to figure this out, but it’s a nice little feature that I did not see documented on the Apple Boot Camp site. It doesn’t appear to be available in the copy of Windows XP I have running separately in Parallel’s virtualization software, so it must be included in the drivers package that Apple has you install as part of the Boot Camp setup process.

Anybody else find an undocumented gem with Boot Camp? Share it in the comments.

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  1. #1 sp says:

    isn’t that kinda obvious?
    if you attach mighty mouse to regular intel PC, right click works as right click
    so why shouldn’t it (or why is it surprising) that it works with bootcamp?

  2. #2 coelomic says:

    Do you think you will continue to use the windows set up on your mac?

  3. #3 Leo says:

    dude… guess what… if you click on the top LEFT corner… it’s like a LEFT click!!

  4. #4 Tim says:

    Anyone find a way to do control-alt-delete with a MacBook Pro. I tried function-control-alt-delete with no luck. I know there are alternate ways to get the task manager up but we need it to login to a bound domain on startup. Thanks yall.

  5. #5 Quirilio Vilorio says:

    What are the speed differences between having windows under Boot Camp and under Parallel Virtualization Scheme?

    Thanks

  6. #6 willi says:

    Tim just bind the the delete key to another key like the enter key left of the arrows.

  7. #7 Neil says:

    Does the iSight work in XP? I’m wondering if those same drivers can be applied to the original external iSight.

  8. #8 Rich Trouton says:

    The iSight does not work in XP.

  9. #9 Jon says:

    iSight works fine on a windows machine (non mac hardware) when using AOL et al

  10. #10 random8r says:

    Yeah, iSight doesn’t work on a Mac under XP.

    The MightyMouse is a two-button mouse that by default is configured as a one-button mouse in Mac OS X. If you open OS X, you can set up the second “side” or button. Obviously (but apparently not so much so) it’ll work like any other two button mouse in any other operating system.

  11. #11 Lordmike says:

    @Tim–
    I haven’t tried XP on my Macbook pro yet, but you could try Ctrl Shift Esc, which is most common (that I have seen) to bring up the task manager in windows.

  12. #12 JCase says:

    iSight will work under XP. It comes out too bright by default so you have to adjust the brightness. Try the driver here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~iwan/1394/

  13. #13 Tyron says:

    I have a bit of a problem. I recently purchased a MacBook and a wirless mighty mouse. I installed XP and everything works on XP except for the mighty mouse scroll ball. It works fine on the Mac OS but I don’t even get a vertical scroll from the scroll bar on XP. I tried activating the mouse wheel on XP through control panel however it seems that it does not even recognise that the mighty mouse has a scroll wheel.

    Help would be appreciated. Thanks

  14. #14 barak says:

    same problem like Tyron’s here. Is there a driver update for the mighty mouse on windoes macbook? Can’t use the scroll button at all on windows :(

  15. #15 Hoby says:

    I am finding right-click operations with the Mighty Mouse in Windows (Boot Camp on MacBooks and iMacs) is very iffy. It works and then it doesn’t. Repeated right-clicks will eventually produce the correct result but it is not guaranteed to work each time. I have experience this with multiple Mighty Mice, both wired and Bluetooth, on multiple Macs. Anyone know if there is a fix for this?

  16. #16 TG says:

    yeah- you have to lift your left finger off the mouse (at least the area that would be the left button on a normal mouse). works fine then

  17. #17 DanCh says:

    I found a xp on apple program that has a shortcut for the right click, cnt alt del, screen print key and a multi CPU display indicator.

    At. http://www.50asa.com

  18. #18 Nico says:

    I bought the wireless MightyMouse a week ago, and installed Bootcamp soon after that.
    Just so I could play the shooter games like I did on my laptop.

    I found out that when you press the sidebuttons (in OS X to get Expose) you go “Back” in explorer and browsers, its great but needs getting used too.

    Also the right button is also something to get used too… I think every person rests both fingers on the buttons to have them ready…
    Its a very small difference but its there… and you need to adjust to that to have it work :)
    I am getting there :P

  19. #19 Andromeda says:

    The Apple Mighty Mouse seems like a nice example of what’s good, and what’s not so good about Apple designs. Apple is famous for producing gorgeous stuff that … sort- of-works, but isn’t really ready for prime time. Like the Apple Lisa (first computer I ever bought), Apple Dylan, the Newton - all great products that got dropped just before they were matured to the point of being useful (side note: I’m still curious whether Aperture will end up in this category).

    The Might Mouse is clean and elegant. But the right-click - particularly when operating as a left-hand mouse in Windows XP - is very iffy. I find that I have to take my hand right off the mouse, and then click to get a right-click (a normal click when the mouse is left-hand configured).

    Oddly enough, I find that the Mighty Mouse is much better at recognising right-clicks under OS X than under Windows XP (when configured as a left-hand mouse): perhasps the OS X driver does some post-processing on the Mighty Mouse signal.

    Although I can get the Mighty Mouse to work under Windows XP, it’s ergonomically awkward. I think I’ll buy a Microsoft bluetooth mouse that has “real buttons”. Perhaps it won’t look quite as slick - but all my Microsoft mice simply work. No fuss, no special hand positions - they just work. And ultimately, that’s what I want from a mouse - not for it to look a bit cooler on my desk, but for it to work.

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  22. #22 Scotty_D says:

    I got the Isight camera to work on my IMac intel if you choose to install bootcamp 1.1.2. That version has the additional drivers for Apple built in camera’s

  23. #23 Jenna Fox says:

    The internal and external iSight camera’s are different things. The internal version uses usb stuff and the external one uses standard firewire stuff and should work on any computer with firewire support fine. If you have an internal iSight you will very likely need to find a driver to get that to work.

  24. #24 Michael Klein says:

    I have to reset the pointer speed settings under Mouse in Control Panel every time I boot my BootCamp/XP/MacBookPro. Any fixes for this?

  25. #25 Andy says:

    This is classic! You use a two button mouse on Windows and it behaves as a two button mouse should do on Windows and you think it is Apple that improved Windows - Apple have some good products, but some people wear the Apple blinkers their marketing department give out for free!

  26. #26 Omri says:

    Tim,

    Use control-alt-function-delete, in that order.

  27. #27 Dan says:

    I get the same problem as Andromeda. When using the Mighty Mouse in XP via bootcamp with the buttons reversed (for left handed use) the right ‘button’ doesn’t register a click unless you’ve got your other fingers raised from the left ‘button’ area. The same set up in OS X works fine, so I think it’s a driver issue. In XP the mighty mouse is just treated as a generic usb mouse and uses the microsoft default driver as far as I can tell. Anyone know where to get a windows driver for the mighty mouse?I need to use XP for my accounting software, and other than this issue I quite like the lightness and ergonomics of the mighty mouse… I do a lot of clicking in photoshop and the clicking mechanism reduces strain on your tendons because you use the weight of your hand (rather than just your digits) to perform the clicking action.

  28. #28 Gary Bridger says:

    Hay guys whats all the bother. Just plug in a mouse from windows. but when that window drops down in XP asking ( you are trying to connect USB Hid device to to the virtual machine) just click NO! and your mouse will work as normal.

  29. #29 rudi says:

    Apples Mighty Mouse is a multi-button mouse and you can set here up to what ever you want. Left-click, right-click, even center-click at the litte ball (scrolls 360 degree - vertical, horizontal) and you can squeeze-click here too. This is nothing special, it is just the mighty mouse - that’s why it’s named ‘mighty’.
    If you are looking for ‘cntr’-functions try the Apple-botton: Task-manager would be Apple+Alt+Esc
    Just like copy and paste would be Apple+C and Apple+V
    … and so on!

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