Windows – How to right-drag using trackpad only, for Windows on MacBook

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Is there ANY way — either from Apple or via third party utility software — to enable the built-in TrackPad on a MacBook Pro laptop to do a real "right-click drag" function?

Note I'm asking for right-dragging NOT "right clicking" — this is where, under Windows, you click the right mouse button while pointing at something, HOLD DOWN the right mouse button and DRAG the object somewhere, THEN let the right mouse button go, and usually a menu pops up at that point, to allow you to choose what you want to do with the thing you're dragging (a file or icon or whatever).

This function, right-click dragging, is actually quite useful and a real time-saver that my fingers muscle-memory is pretty much coded to do A LOT, while I'm working in several different software products under Windows.

Moving to a MacBook (with Windows running in emulation, via VirtualBox) has a lot of great benefits for me, BUT having to give up right-dragging is kind of almost turning into a total deal-breaker for this effort, to move to a MacBook.

Also I know I could just plug in a mouse, but really would prefer to get this working with the great Apple TrackPad IF at all possible!! The trackpad is an amazing piece of tech and I cannot believe that I'm really the first person to notice this HUGE oversight of the missing right-drag functionality.

I'd have thought this would have been fixed already AGES ago, what with Apple's otherwise stellar support of Windows on Mac hardware.

There HAS to be a solution for this…

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UPDATE – EDIT

Hi guys, thanks for comments. I realize it's not "Mac Like" to do this, but I don't want it for OSX, I only want it to work for WINDOWS. (Shouldn't Windows running on Mac still work in a "Windows-Like" way, IF Apple's goal is to really fully support running Windows on Apple hardware?)

My goal is to have both OS running side by side (not via Boot Camp, I want the Win setup to be virtualized and keep it a finger flick away, on it's own Spaces desktop) so that I can keep using all my old Win software while moving into the Mac world in the future. Best of both worlds… in theory.

I've already enabled lower-right TrackPad corner click as right-click, but it doesn't work for this right-click-dragging. Any clicking automatically finishes when you click, it doesn't appear to support HOLDING DOWN the click, so you cannot DRAG before letting the right-click back UP again.

Again, this all DOES apparently work fine IF you have an external, two-button mouse connected. So it shouldn't really be impossible, it just needs the software to better understand what's being done with the TrackPad!

I'd be happy even if some alternative "gesture" could be defined for this, on the Mac's TrackPad. I've looked at a couple apps so far (Better Touch Tool, etc) but nothing yet seems to work. Seems like the issue (as noted above) must be something to do with software understanding of the "holding down" of the right-click.

Also does anyone know if maybe this has been solved in either of the commercial VM programs (Parallels or VMware)? Rather than using the free VirtualBox, I'd be willing to buy something to get this functionality working correctly on Windows the way I want it to work…

Best Answer

You can do this on the Macbook Pro trackpad by pressing down with two fingers hard enough to engage the mechanical "mouse" button built in to the trackpad. Drag your item(s) to the desired destination and then release the pressure off the button and... voila! Windows will display the right drag menu at that point.

Unfortunately this doesn't allow "locked drags" where you can continue dragging long distances by picking your fingers up off the trackpad surface and quickly repositioning them to continue the drag.