I wanted to post this for a while as being “for the record” since when I searched for it a while back nothing came up. So, for the sake of the search engines (and those interested) I’ll post my grand discovery. Being an occasional laptop user I have only two mouse buttons unless I bust out the USB trackball mouse. In Houdini there is a bunch of stuff you can do that requires the middle mouse button, so I wanted that middle button without having to go search for external hardware. Behold! The answer!:

Click the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously to get middle mouse button functionality.

1. StillNoUniversalNick42 Says:
   October 16th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

   I think i already knew this! yeah yeah yeah, either way, i actually will benefit from this NOW. hee hee.

   what i’m really curious about is from a post from someone that had one of those 8+ button mice w/ programmable buttons. if one of the extra buttons was programmed to be SPACEBAR, couldn’t SPACEBAR+LMB etc be done w/ only the mouse?

   i’d love to hear if this would work and what ppl think about customizing their setup, good / bad / too difficult to use the reg setup on another puter?

   peace & 42

2. JasonM Says:
   December 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm

   well, this isn’t working for me. w/ the 2 buttons “below” the touchpad or with a usb mouse.

   vista 64 bit.

   any clues?

3. geneome Says:
   December 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm

   I’ve only tried it on Windows XP though (my laptop) and it seems to work with a two button touchpad. On Vista 64 with a 3 button mouse is doesn’t work. So it seems either Vista sees the mouse hardware different or it won’t work if you have a mouse detected that has a third button or some third button capability. What laptop do you have (so I can check out the touchpad) and is the usb mouse connected when you try middle mouse button emulation? If so, have you tried it when it’s disconnected?