I've got a Synaptics Touchpad on my laptop, an Acer Aspire 5672WLMi. Right now, the basic things work (click, double-click, drag-and-drop, and scrolling).

However, I would really like to have middle- and right-click functionality. Tapping with two fingers = middle-click, and tapping with three fingers = right click.

I know my touchpad supports it, since it works fine in Linux. I didn't think I would have to install extra drivers, since all I had to do was edit my xorg.conf file. What do I need to do to get this thing working in WinXP Pro?

If you have the Synaptic driver (it's on Acer's site for sure) installed, there is one more pane in the mouse properties in Conntrol Panel (in case the Synaptic icon is not on the taskbar already. The options you are looking for are in the "Tap Zones"part that you first need to enable (Settings / Tapping / Tap Zones).

I've got the Touchpad Settings V6.2, and I'm in the Tapping >> Tap Zones menu. I see "Enable Tap Zones" (it's checked) and then sub-categories for each of the tap zones (top-left, top-right, etc.) and the sizes of the zones. I don't see anything about two- or three-finger tapping in the rest of the settings.

Sorry for being so ignorant. Am I missing something obvious?

The two and three finger clicking is something that's implemented in the drivers, not the hardware.

Just because the Linux drivers allowed you to do that, doesn't mean that the Windows Synaptics drivers will have that feature. I've seen it in OSX for Mac laptops, but I have yet to see that option in Windows.

Speaking of Synaptics touchpad and tap zones, does anyone know a way to use touch-zones when tap-to-click is turned off? I think it's impossible, but if it is possible, that would be great. I don't like tap-to-click because I'm always "clicking" on something I don't want to click, but I do like tap-zones. Alternatively, is there a way for me to change how hard I have to tap the pad for it to register as a click? Thanks in advance.

The tap-zones without tapping isn't possible. I wanted the same thing, but never found a solution. I even messed with settings manually but no dice.

I'm not sure, but the tapping sensitivity might be in the same section as the regular sensitivity... I haven't used a synaptics touchpad in a while.

I can't find it in there anywhere, either. I'll search around on their website maybe, but it appears to be impossible.

Yea - another feature I wish I had was the two finger scroll, like what's found in OSX. You can just drag two fingers anywhere on the touchpad to scroll the top application. Very handy, since you don't need to define a "scroll zone".

I've never seen that before. But mine came pre-configured to scroll when I drag across the right or bottom edges of the touch pad. I never had to configure that.

Oh and nothing really on their website. Not a great site.

Edited May 17, 200719 yr by Idontwantspam

The Synaptics driver supplied with my Acer wasn't fully functional in Firefox so I only use the one from Synaptics which works correctly.

Edited May 25, 200719 yr by severach