I received an email some days ago from a reader who would like to know if there was a program for Microsoft windows that would replicate the middle mouse functionality of Linux systems, that is copy a text with the first click and paste the text with the second click. Lucky me had already a bookmark to the freeware true x-mouse gizmo for windows website so I send him that information and think it made him happy.
He is probably not the only one who would like such functionality though and I therefor decided to write this little article that reviews the software. I prefer that a software does not install itself on my system, a unpack and go type of software and x-mouse is exactly such a type. Download the executable, run it from a location on your computer and the freeware is active. It places a small icon in the system tray.
Windows users might find the procedure to copy and paste text with the middle mouse button confusing at first but will surely love it once they get used to it. You highlight a portion of the text with the left mouse button as usual and hit the middle mouse button once the complete text is highlighted. This will copy the text to the clipboard. The next click of the middle mouse button would paste the text if the application allows it. It makes not sense to try and paste the text to the website, you need a editor for this or a form field on the website.
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Very very handy…
huh, good. I’m using linux at Uni, and whenever I spend many times on this system, I find that it’s one of the most important lack of Windows. Sadly, this application overrides the other middle-mouse button functions, and it’s somewhat unnerving to discover that it must come to this price. I’m using Opera at home, and the third mouse button functions, I just can’t live without – easily closing a tab (more easily than through the ‘x’ button that is) and especially opening new tabs in the background.
I love you for posting this link, I’ve been looking for such a thing ever since I used linux for the first time. Thanx again
This thing works even in Vista! Thank you for this post! Peace and love
You don’t even have to click to copy – just highlight, then click where you want to paste, and right click. You also get the useful feature of being able to use the scroll wheel on background windows without raising them first.
I just found that tool and was very happy, too. But unfortunately with the tool it is not longer possible to open a new firefox-tab by clicking a link with the middle mouse button. Does anybody have a solution for this problem?
RapidClickInterval in the registry. (See TX-Mouse homepage)
But for some reason it does not work on firefox4…
There seems to be an issue with Access applications and multiple select form components (maybe others — going out on a limb). When I am running TXMouse, the Access application I am using on Windows XP crashes. This is repeatable. I’ll pass it on to the web site, but just in case someone reading about this tool and is using Access. Maybe some other VBA issues? TXMouse is extremely handy (except in this case).
Where is the link? It seems to be http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/nt/TXMouse/
I am using x-mouse for a long time now.
The only issue I have is that it takes away the middle mouse for other applications like firefox.
I found a workaround in firefox 3 that allowed to define long middle mouse click as click and a short one as paste (see true gizmo homepage).
But now it does not seem to work with firefox4. Is there any other solution for this? Some an idea?
Is it possible to set it up so that a long middle-click is paste and a short one is normal ? (Basically just reverse the way it is now)
I can’t find enough documentation to figure it out, but it should be a 2 minutes job for whoever has the source code.