Distinguish between left-click on keyboard's touchpad mouse button and left-click via touchpad tap

[JoeWinograd]

Hi Folks,

I have an IBM Model SK8845RC keyboard, which has a touchpad (a pointing stick, too, but I never use that). I'm pretty sure that the touchpad is a Synaptics and I've tried every driver that I can get my hands on (XP, Vista, W7, W8, W10), but I can't get any driver to work on W10/64-bit.

The keyboard works fine on W10 with the built-in driver, but the problem is that the touchpad can't be configured without a specific driver for it. This means that a tap on the touchpad is treated like a left-click, which I hate...I always disable taps on touchpads. But without a touchpad driver for the SK8845RC, there's no way to disable taps on the touchpad.

So, I'm wondering if AutoHotkey can come to the rescue on this. Is there any way to distinguish between a left-click that is generated by the left mouse button and a left-click that is generated by a tap on the touchpad? If so, I'd like AutoHotkey to intercept the latter and ignore it. Thanks much, Joe

[mikeyww]

Perhaps this will work.

https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=45307

[JoeWinograd]

Perhaps this will work.

Hi mikey,
Thanks for the link...I'll give it a look. I've never done anything with scan codes in AHK. Do you know if there is a way to tell what scan code is being sent when the left mouse button is pressed and what scan code is being sent when the touchpad is tapped? Thanks, Joe

[mikeyww]

Joe,

I never tried it but believe that there is actually a script to do just that. Here are some links that I saved.

https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/21105-crazy-scripting-scriptlet-to-find-scancode-of-a-key/

https://jacks-autohotkey-blog.com/2016/04/14/understanding-autohotkey-keyboard-scan-codes-and-virtual-key-codes-beginning-hotkeys-part-12/

@SKAN's "crazy" script there might be the one to examine.

Best of luck --

Mike

[rommmcek]

EitherMouse might serve too.

[mikeyww]

Nice! Thank you, @rommmcek.

[JoeWinograd]

Hi mikey,
Thanks for those links...unfortunately, no joy, but they were worth a try.

Hi rommmcek,
Thanks for letting me know about EitherMouse...I was not aware of it...very interesting program! It works well, but is not able to distinguish between a click on the left mouse button and a tap on the touchpad. I'm sure that's not a shortcoming of EitherMouse, but almost certainly that the hardware is sending the same signal in both cases.

I appreciate the comments from both of you! Regards, Joe

[rommmcek]

This is strange! May be I miss something, but EitherMouse can detect the mouse user is currently using in real time. In a quick test I appended context sensitive hotkey

Code: Select all

#if (ThisMouse=65595) ; Activate touchpad to display "ThisMouse" number and set the condition to displayed number
;LButton:: Return     ; then remove the line "ToolTip % ThisMouse" and reload the script
RButton:: Return

besides I commented out all content of the MouseChange: label and put in ToolTip % ThisMouse to set up the condition. It worked for me.

[gwarble]

If you're trying to block the touchpad clicks altogether and use a different mouse then EitherMouse should work for you, but if you're trying to maintain touchpad button clicking but block touchpad taps on the pad itself then EitherMouse won't know the difference (if they come from the same device id/handle). I think you'll need the driver to make that distinction but AHI is worth a shot in case there is some difference.

Thanks for recommending EitherMouse

[JoeWinograd]

EitherMouse can detect the mouse user is currently using in real time

Yes, but on my keyboard with the built-in mouse/touchpad, it can't tell the difference between a left-click on the mouse button and a tap on the touchpad, which also behaves like a left-click.

if you're trying to maintain touchpad button clicking but block touchpad taps on the pad itself then EitherMouse won't know the difference

Exactly!

I think you'll need the driver to make that distinction

I agree, and I've always installed the touchpad drivers (such as Synaptics and ELAN), but the whole issue here is that I can't find a driver for the touchpad on that keyboard that works in W10.

AHI is worth a shot in case there is some difference.

Will do. I took a quick look at it when mikey posted the link but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks for recommending EitherMouse

You're welcome...excellent program!