I’ve shown you how to map a key on a keyboard to something else using software like KeyTweak, SharpKeys and MapKeyboard. It is most useful when one of your keys is stuck and you can disable the key so you can continue to use your keyboard until you get a replacement.

What about mouse? I am using a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical mouse which has 5 buttons! There is right, middle, left, and 2 more extra buttons which is located at the side of the mouse. By default the 4th and 5th button is used for back and forward and I seldom use it because I am very used to pressing backspace when I need to go back and Alt+Right to go forward. Now I can make use of the 4th and 5th button because I found a nice tool that can change and customize my mouse buttons actions.

X-Mouse Button Control is a windows application to remap your mouse buttons. You are able to provide an application specific mappings, which means one application can use the mouse differently from another. This is useful for games which do not inherently support the extended mouse buttons, because you can map keys to each button.

Change mouse buttons

X-Mouse Button Changer supports mapping your mouse buttons to the following actions:

  • ALT-Tab *Vista Only*
  • Back
  • Browser Favorites
  • Browser Refresh
  • Browser Stop
  • Close (ALT+F4)
  • Copy (Ctrl+C)
  • Cut (Ctrl+X)
  • Disable
  • Double Click
  • Enter
  • Escape
  • Flip 3D *Vista Only*
  • Forward
  • Launch EMail
  • Left Click
  • Left Cllick-Drag [Sticky Button]
  • Lock Workstation
  • Maximize Window
  • Media – Last Track
  • Media – Next Track
  • Media – Play/Pause
  • Media – Stop
  • Middle Click
  • Middle Click-Drag [Sticky Button]
  • Minimize Window
  • Mouse Wheel Scroll Down
  • Mouse Wheel Scroll Up
  • Mute
  • New
  • Next Window
  • Nothing (Don’t intercept) (Default)
  • Open
  • Open Explorer
  • Open Help
  • Open RUN Command
  • Open Search
  • Open Web Browser
  • Paste (CTRL+V)
  • Print Active Window
  • Print Screen
  • Redo (CTRL+Y)
  • Restore Window
  • Right Click
  • Right Click-Drag [Sticky Button]
  • Run Application
  • Show sidebar *Vista Only*
  • Show/Hide Desktop
  • Simulated Keystrokes
  • Undo (CTRL+Z)
  • Volume Down
  • Volume Up

    • X-Mouse program is 350KB in size and it is free. It can customize up to 5 buttons and not more because it is only capable of responding the messages sent by Windows. You can easily bypass all customized mouse button actions by pressing and enabling the Scroll Lock key. There is also an option to hide the tray icon. I think that this tool will be very helpful if you have a mouse with 5 buttons. As for people with 2 or 3 button mouse, you can use it to help you perform certain task.

    Here are a few example on how X-Mouse program can help you. You can easily minimize all running programs with a single click if you think your boss is walking towards you. You can simulate keystrokes if you have to type any repetitive words or sentence. You can disable right click when you have kids playing computer games. If you need to copy and paste, you can set left click to copy and right click to paste. You can also prank your friends by switching their right click to left click and left click to right click! :lol:

    As you can see, the possibilities are endless! I hope you can share with me your ideas on how can this tool help you or other people.

    [ Download X-Mouse Button Control for 32bit | for 64bit ]

    [tags]mouse, button, change, customize, action[/tags]