MacOS – Disable system-wide ctrl-click as right-click in Mavericks

keyboardmacosmouse

Disabling ctrl+click as right-click is useful because:

Many web app rely on ctrl+click (typically for multiple selection).
There is little use for this combo (mice have 2+ buttons and trackpad emulate right-click with two-finger click or clicking in the right zone).

Can it be done in OS X Mavericks?

This question has been asked before for Lion and answered negatively (i.e. a third party utility is needed). Has this improved for Mavericks?

Best Answer

There is no system supported method for disabling ctrl+click from functioning as a secondary click in Mavericks.

You can use Karabiner Elements to remap "Control+LeftClick to LeftClick," which essentially disables this behavior system-wide.

Step 1:

Install Karabiner Elements: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

Step 2:

When you then go to open Karabiner Elements, it will have a couple security issues you need to resolve.

The first will be to allow the installation of a kernel extension:

The second will be to allow input monitoring:

Step 3:

Once those security issues are handled, you then need to add a complex modification. Visit: https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/#control_lclick_to_lclick

Then click Import on the Disable Ctrl Click modification:

This will add the complex modification to Karabiner Elements and enable the functionality:

Addendum:

However, I don't know of any web apps (and certainly not most or many) which don't recognize and respect Command+LeftClick as a way to multi-select. That is the standard for macOS.

Related Solutions

MacOS – Disable system wide Ctrl+Click in OS X

You can map control+click to command+click globally with KeyRemap4Macbook. Put the following in your private.xml:

<root>
    <item>
        <name>Control+LeftClick Command+LeftClick</name>
        <appendix>Control+LeftClick Command+LeftClick</appendix>
        <identifier>control_click_to_command_click</identifier>
        <autogen>--PointingButtonToPointingButton-- PointingButton::LEFT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L, PointingButton::LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    </item>
</root>

This will cause any ctrl-click you type to be seen by the system as ⌘-click. That will prevent the contextual menu (since you won't actually be producing a ctrl). You'll still need to change your IDE settings, but this way you can keep the muscle-memory for the shortcut.

MacOS – Left mouse click for external mouse not working after upgrading to Lion

The solution was to disable the internal trackpad. The trackpad, one of the older style pads with the separate button along the bottom edge, had a malfunctioning button and that seemed to be at the heart of the problem.

As soon as I disabled the trackpad the mouse would word. And as soon as I re-enabled the trackpad the mouse would cease to work.

For details on how to disable the trackpad see this question and answer.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – Disable system wide Ctrl+Click in OS X

MacOS – Left mouse click for external mouse not working after upgrading to Lion

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