need to diable right mouse button (special case for elderly person)

[James Bond]

Hello. My 80+ year old father has recently decided to get his first
computer. Due to his age (and I suspect lack of playing pong as a child
like I did) he lacks the manual dexterity to use a mouse well. He is
frequently missing the left mouse button and hitting the right, or less
often the middle (wheel) buttons. While he is very slowly getting better
with practice, the frustration level is high for him as a result of this
(he gets very confused, for example, when "strange" contect menues start
popping up).

Since he is not really doing anything that requires the use of the right
mouse button (much less the wheel) I was thinking the simple solution
would be to disable the right and middle buttons, or even better, make
them all send a left button signal.

I cannot find a way to do this in winxp home, however, so I was wondering
if there might be a way to right a little program that would exist as a
daemon and intercept mouse clicks and translate them all to left clicks.
I have a little experience with VB coding but writing a daemon that
operates that closely with hardware is a little over my head. I was
hoping for some pointers in the right direction or suggestions for an
alternate solution.

TIA

[EricJ]

(ok i admit i have never used xp home, but i can't imagine you cant do it
there)
in xp pro its easy
go to control panel/ mouse (the first tab you get there should be buttons)
you can set the right and wheel button to click there (it wil give a left
click then.

its possible this is something mousedriver specific but it should be there

as to building a program for that. It should be possible , but i don't think
that would be easy as windows programs tend to react to mouse events on
their own forms only.
i used to have a vb6 app that used a windows api to do mouse things (record
movement, clicks and replay them) but that was vb6 and win98 :/.

try the mouse settings first

hope it helps

eric

"James Bond" <jb***@universalexports.com> wrote in message
news:Xn**********************************@216.168. 3.30...

Hello. My 80+ year old father has recently decided to get his first
computer. Due to his age (and I suspect lack of playing pong as a child
like I did) he lacks the manual dexterity to use a mouse well. He is
frequently missing the left mouse button and hitting the right, or less
often the middle (wheel) buttons. While he is very slowly getting better
with practice, the frustration level is high for him as a result of this
(he gets very confused, for example, when "strange" contect menues start
popping up).

Since he is not really doing anything that requires the use of the right
mouse button (much less the wheel) I was thinking the simple solution
would be to disable the right and middle buttons, or even better, make
them all send a left button signal.

I cannot find a way to do this in winxp home, however, so I was wondering
if there might be a way to right a little program that would exist as a
daemon and intercept mouse clicks and translate them all to left clicks.
I have a little experience with VB coding but writing a daemon that
operates that closely with hardware is a little over my head. I was
hoping for some pointers in the right direction or suggestions for an
alternate solution.

TIA

[Christian Blackburn]

Hi James Bond,
I realize you sincerely want to help you grandfather and I commend you for
that, but there's a hell of a lot that one can do with a context menu that
he'll ultimately be missing out on. I would recommend taking him mouse
shopping and trying to find him a mouse that is comparatively foolproof.
The other thing is that yes he'll have to gain video game like precision.
We as creatures are highly imperfect, we ask our body to the exact same
thing all the time and yet always with a slightly different result. He'll
have to learn to tell his mind that the left button is here and the right
button is there and if he pushes the wrong button the wrong thing will
happen. The other thing you'll have to do is be his patient. Sometimes
just giving people a sense of humor on the matter and or teaching them to
laugh at themselves might not be such a bad idea. Also your mouse task does
indeed sound like a job for James Bond :).
Good luck,
Christian Blackburn

"EricJ" <ericRéMo**@ThiSomnipack.be> wrote in message
news:3f***********************@reader3.news.skynet .be...

(ok i admit i have never used xp home, but i can't imagine you cant do it
there)
in xp pro its easy
go to control panel/ mouse (the first tab you get there should be buttons)
you can set the right and wheel button to click there (it wil give a left
click then.

its possible this is something mousedriver specific but it should be there

as to building a program for that. It should be possible , but i don't think that would be easy as windows programs tend to react to mouse events on
their own forms only.
i used to have a vb6 app that used a windows api to do mouse things (record movement, clicks and replay them) but that was vb6 and win98 :/.

try the mouse settings first

hope it helps

eric

"James Bond" <jb***@universalexports.com> wrote in message
news:Xn**********************************@216.168. 3.30...

Hello. My 80+ year old father has recently decided to get his first
computer. Due to his age (and I suspect lack of playing pong as a child
like I did) he lacks the manual dexterity to use a mouse well. He is
frequently missing the left mouse button and hitting the right, or less
often the middle (wheel) buttons. While he is very slowly getting better with practice, the frustration level is high for him as a result of this
(he gets very confused, for example, when "strange" contect menues start
popping up).

Since he is not really doing anything that requires the use of the right
mouse button (much less the wheel) I was thinking the simple solution
would be to disable the right and middle buttons, or even better, make
them all send a left button signal.

I cannot find a way to do this in winxp home, however, so I was wondering if there might be a way to right a little program that would exist as a
daemon and intercept mouse clicks and translate them all to left clicks.
I have a little experience with VB coding but writing a daemon that
operates that closely with hardware is a little over my head. I was
hoping for some pointers in the right direction or suggestions for an
alternate solution.

TIA

[Christian Blackburn]

Hi James Bond,
Another thing I'd like to mention is that sometimes when you help people
you're actually hindering them. I think writing a mouse button wrapper
would be one of those times.
Adios Amigo,
Christian Blackburn

"EricJ" <ericRéMo**@ThiSomnipack.be> wrote in message
news:3f***********************@reader3.news.skynet .be...

(ok i admit i have never used xp home, but i can't imagine you cant do it
there)
in xp pro its easy
go to control panel/ mouse (the first tab you get there should be buttons)
you can set the right and wheel button to click there (it wil give a left
click then.

its possible this is something mousedriver specific but it should be there

as to building a program for that. It should be possible , but i don't think that would be easy as windows programs tend to react to mouse events on
their own forms only.
i used to have a vb6 app that used a windows api to do mouse things (record movement, clicks and replay them) but that was vb6 and win98 :/.

try the mouse settings first

hope it helps

eric

"James Bond" <jb***@universalexports.com> wrote in message
news:Xn**********************************@216.168. 3.30...

Hello. My 80+ year old father has recently decided to get his first
computer. Due to his age (and I suspect lack of playing pong as a child
like I did) he lacks the manual dexterity to use a mouse well. He is
frequently missing the left mouse button and hitting the right, or less
often the middle (wheel) buttons. While he is very slowly getting better with practice, the frustration level is high for him as a result of this
(he gets very confused, for example, when "strange" contect menues start
popping up).

Since he is not really doing anything that requires the use of the right
mouse button (much less the wheel) I was thinking the simple solution
would be to disable the right and middle buttons, or even better, make
them all send a left button signal.

I cannot find a way to do this in winxp home, however, so I was wondering if there might be a way to right a little program that would exist as a
daemon and intercept mouse clicks and translate them all to left clicks.
I have a little experience with VB coding but writing a daemon that
operates that closely with hardware is a little over my head. I was
hoping for some pointers in the right direction or suggestions for an
alternate solution.

TIA

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "Christian Blackburn" <Ch*****************@[e-mail]> scripsit:

Another thing I'd like to mention is that sometimes when you help people
you're actually hindering them. I think writing a mouse button wrapper
would be one of those times.

Why not design a single button mouse?

;-)

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[EricJ]

are you telling people to get a mac? ;p

Why not design a single button mouse?

;-)

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Cor]

LOL

are you telling people to get a mac? ;p

Why not design a single button mouse?

[Christian Blackburn]

Herfried,
You some engineers wondered the same thing in the 80s today that disaster is
called a Macintosh mouse :). When I used to work at Microsoft I recall my
boss joking Question:
How can you confuse a mac user?

Answer:
Give them a 3 button mouse!

Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hi***************@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:bp*************@ID-208219.news.uni-berlin.de...

* "Christian Blackburn" <Ch*****************@[e-mail]>

scripsit:

Another thing I'd like to mention is that sometimes when you help people
you're actually hindering them. I think writing a mouse button wrapper
would be one of those times.

Why not design a single button mouse?

;-)

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "EricJ" <ericRéMo**@ThiSomnipack.be> scripsit:

are you telling people to get a mac? ;p

Why not design a single button mouse?

No, I am telling them to use .NET.

SCNR

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "Christian Blackburn" <Ch*****************@[e-mail]> scripsit:

You some engineers wondered the same thing in the 80s today that disaster is
called a Macintosh mouse :). When I used to work at Microsoft I recall my
boss joking Question:
How can you confuse a mac user?

ROFL

I remember the time when I had to work on a Mac... Poor...

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Christian Blackburn]

Hi Herfried,
Can you define your acronyms for me:
-SCNR

-ROFL

Thanks,
Christian Blackburn
"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hi***************@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:bp*************@ID-208219.news.uni-berlin.de...

* "EricJ" <ericRéMo**@ThiSomnipack.be> scripsit:

are you telling people to get a mac? ;p

Why not design a single button mouse?

No, I am telling them to use .NET.

SCNR

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

* "Christian Blackburn" <Ch*****************@[e-mail]> scripsit:

Can you define your acronyms for me:
-SCNR
Sorry, could not resist.
-ROFL

Rolling on the floor laughing.

--
Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

[Mark Jerde]

Christian Blackburn wrote:

Hi James Bond,
Another thing I'd like to mention is that sometimes when you help
people you're actually hindering them. I think writing a mouse
button wrapper would be one of those times.
Adios Amigo,
Christian Blackburn

Naah, it's just a set of "Mouse Training Wheels" that will be taken off in a
little while. <g>

-- Mark

[James Bond]

"EricJ" <ericRéMo**@ThiSomnipack.be> wrote in
news:3f***********************@reader3.news.skynet .be:

(ok i admit i have never used xp home, but i can't imagine you cant do
it there)
in xp pro its easy
go to control panel/ mouse (the first tab you get there should be
buttons) you can set the right and wheel button to click there (it wil
give a left click then.

its possible this is something mousedriver specific but it should be
there

as to building a program for that. It should be possible , but i don't
think that would be easy as windows programs tend to react to mouse
events on their own forms only.
i used to have a vb6 app that used a windows api to do mouse things
(record movement, clicks and replay them) but that was vb6 and win98
:/.

try the mouse settings first

hope it helps

eric

"James Bond" <jb***@universalexports.com> wrote in message
news:Xn**********************************@216.168. 3.30...

Hello. My 80+ year old father has recently decided to get his first
computer. Due to his age (and I suspect lack of playing pong as a
child like I did) he lacks the manual dexterity to use a mouse well.
He is frequently missing the left mouse button and hitting the right,
or less often the middle (wheel) buttons. While he is very slowly
getting better with practice, the frustration level is high for him
as a result of this (he gets very confused, for example, when
"strange" contect menues start popping up).

Since he is not really doing anything that requires the use of the
right mouse button (much less the wheel) I was thinking the simple
solution would be to disable the right and middle buttons, or even
better, make them all send a left button signal.

I cannot find a way to do this in winxp home, however, so I was
wondering if there might be a way to right a little program that
would exist as a daemon and intercept mouse clicks and translate them
all to left clicks. I have a little experience with VB coding but
writing a daemon that operates that closely with hardware is a little
over my head. I was hoping for some pointers in the right direction
or suggestions for an alternate solution.

TIA

Hmmm, these options are not available on his WinXP Home computer. The
only options under the buttons tab are to swap the right and left buttons
and set the dbl-click speed. Perhaps it is driver specific (he has a
gateway computer and whatever standard mouse driver that WinXP
installed). I will look into the availability of some other drivers.
Thanks for the info.