logitech-mousemousewindows 7
What is the best, lightest-weight way to make the middle mouse button (i.e. clicking the scroll wheel) behave as a double-left-click in Windows 7? I want this to be universal, so that other programs don't ever see the middle-click, they just see a double-left-click.
I used to do it under Windows XP with Logitech SetPoint drivers but it was always an ugly solution – installing a huge (> 50 MB!) binary just to enable one simple little bit of functionality.
Make sure you have the latest version of SetPoint. You may need to uninstall and reinstall the SetPoint software. By default the middle button will be set to zoom or the application switcher, but you should be able to use SetPoint to configure the middle button as "Other -> Middle Button". Then Firefox will recognize it correctly and close the tab.
Also, the new setpoint software will let you do custom actions for different applications on some mice, so make sure that when you configure it you select the "All Other Programs" or create a special managed program for Firefox.
You may also need to check under the Mouse options in the control panel to see if there are any other configuration issues. If that doesn't work make sure try uninstalling any other mouse software (Microsoft IntelliPoint, uberOptions, Synaptics Touchpad, etc) as well as uninstalling any drivers listed under the "Mice and other pointing devices" in the device manager. Then reboot and it should reinstall the drivers.
Finally if that doesn't work you need to figure out if the problem is in the Mouse, in Set Point, or in the OS. Try this:
Plug in another 3 button mouse that is not made by Logitech and see if the middle button works. If it still doesn't work try using something like Mousekeys to simulate the middle mouse button. If none of these work it may be an OS issue.
Try alternate mapping software such as X-Mouse. Also try mapping the middle click function to another button to see if that work.
Try changing to a different driver. Replacing the existing driver with an older version or with a generic mouse driver might get it to work again. Also try it on another computer and see if works there.
Buy a different mouse :-P Sometimes it is not worth fixing if you can just replace it. I'd highly recommend the MX Revolution, since it has lots of buttons and a nice "free spin" scroll wheel, but it is not a trackball.
It is probably too late to answer five years after asking... There is an option now that is documented and supported by MS to simulate a standard middle click with one tap using Three Finger Click. Not sure it was an option that times. Also not sure it is much more comfortable to perform a single tap with three finger rather than double tap anything. But hope it helps those who stumble upon this answer. It just works and supported.
All you need for this is two following steps (no reboot):
I've found the answer here in the forum post of 2018 in MS Community.
This is how this setting looks like: 
Best Answer
Autohotkey is a light solution, with the script:
You can even compile it to an executable, which weighs about 200KB in disk space and 2.2MB1 in memory. It's also quite easy to add to startup, and is portable.
I personally prefer to use X-Mouse Button Control due to ease of configuration. Simply assign the
Middle ButtontoDouble Click Drag. The advantage is it keeps the second click held as long as the middle button is held, which ensures greater compatibility - it should perform exactly the same way as double clicking normally.Click for full size
It's possible to simulate such an action in AHK, but more difficult - if you wish for such an AHK solution, you can let me know in a comment. The above AHK script will not respond correctly to holding the button down - it will simply double click and release.
X-Mouse Button Control weighs about 3MB in disk space and 3MB1 in memory. It is also optionally portable.
Both AHK and XMBC can accomplish this, and both can be set to have application specific profiles. XMBC is more intuitive, if you wish to modify other mouse buttons without having to learn a scripting language, while AHK is undoubtedly more powerful. Both AHK and XMBC can simulate chains of keypresses, but AHK allows for more complex operations and decision making.
As an aside, AHK will trip PunkBuster (a certain anti-cheating system used by quite a few games), while XMBC will not - at least, at the moment.
1The memory usage is on my computer, Windows 7 x64. It may vary slightly from computer to computer, but the variation shouldn't be much.