Macbook-like Two Finger Scrolling in Windows

A useful but often overlooked feature of the modern Macbooks is the multi-touch trackpad. This work horse is capable of recognising many gestures, including two-finger scrolling and tapping. Let’s bring that functionality to Windows.

This is a mildly technical post detailing how to enable Macbook-like 2-finger scrolling on your Windows notebook touchpad.

My Digital Life has outlined the way to do this. The process is pretty involved.

First, you’ll need to download some modified Synaptics drivers¹ . Then, follow the installation instructions detailed:

Installation:

1. Uninstall all current Synaptics drivers from Control Panel’s Add and Remove Programs or Programs and Features.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Install the modded driver by running the setup.exe inside the ZIP archive.
4. Windows should prompt a warning about unsigned driver. Continue to install the driver anyway.
5. Restart the computer after installation is completed and Synaptics TouchPad driver is updated.
6. In Device Manager’s Mouse and Other Pointing Devices” section, Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad should have driver version of 10.2.4.

When you’re done installing the modified driver, you have to install an open-source program called two-finger-scroll. There is no software to install, just double-click the executable file.

One last thing. In order for two-finger scroll to work properly, you need to disable all 2-finger commands, and all virtual scrolling except for horizontal (you might want to keep this on, since two-finger-scroll doesn’t work horizontally..

Disable 2-finger commands by going to: Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > "Two Finger Gestures and un-checking “Enable two finger gestures”.

Finally, disable virtual scrolling by going to: Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > Virtual Scrolling and un-checking “Enable vertical scrolling” and “Enable ChiralMotion scrolling”.

And you’re done!

Extra:
Two-finger-tap = right-click

You can also enable a two-finger-tap to mean a right click using the same application. Here are the settings I’ve used.

---

1: Enable Multi-Touch Gesture (Finger Scroll, Momentum, and ChiralMotion on Synaptics TouchPad in Windows 7/Vista/XP/Server [My Digital Life]

Disclaimer: Try this at your own risk. It worked for me, but it might not work for you. Whatever happens, I’m not responsible. Thanks!

Possibly Related Articles (automatically generated)