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

Question

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?

Note: for the first point it's cleary a design flaw, since on OSX multiple selection if achieve with Cmd. — Matthieu Riegler, Jan 22 '14 at 16:00

spex · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-15T05:06:21.363

29

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.

edited Nov 15 '20 at 05:06

answered Aug 13 '14 at 04:41

spex

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this is not the best choice if you need to use the CTRL+click for some other action, this will completly remap it, so you can;t use it elsewhere – Asped Sep 27 '16 at 12:07
Also Karabiner-EventViewer will help you debug keys (in my case a bug made the Cmd key always on) – Dorian Feb 03 '17 at 05:31
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Karabiner-Elements-11.6.0 on High Sierra 10.13.3 does not have any choice starting with control in the "Simple Modifications" tab (the first one). Anybody with an idea how to fix Ctrl key with this combo? – Richlv Mar 23 '18 at 11:58
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This application has changed, you'll need to import this "Complex Modification" rule https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/complex_modifications/#control_lclick_to_lclick – Ryan Williams Aug 20 '19 at 02:49
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Did that "Complex Modification" rule "ctrl+left click to click" imported, but it doesn't seem to work, I still got the context menu poped up – Gelin Luo Nov 11 '20 at 00:10
@GelinLuo I updated the answer to include the updated instructions – spex Nov 15 '20 at 04:53
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It's important to note that if you're using a mouse, you must go to Karabiner-Elements Preferences -> Devices -> enable the mouse. – Matias Dec 27 '20 at 19:13
it seems that there is a bug in Karabiner that prevents the modification from working on a trackpad, see https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/2157 – Evgeny Dec 14 '22 at 11:48
This seems to work, but only for a single click. I need this change for click and hold (to play minecraft lol). Can someone explain how to do that? – Malaber May 25 '23 at 21:44
@Malaber You shouldn't need to do this for Minecraft. macOS handles two-button mice just fine, and has options for the Magic Mouse and the built-in touchpads to use left/right side clicks or two-finger clicks: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/right-click-mh35853/mac – spex Mar 08 '24 at 17:21

score 28 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 31 '15 at 08:13

28

In my VMWare Windows 7 guest, I have found (after reading this post) that using Ctrl+Command+LeftClick works the same as Ctrl+LeftClick would in a hardware Windows machine.

edited Jan 31 '15 at 08:13

Giacomo1968

5,623

answered Jan 21 '15 at 10:28

mvreijn

471

How do i turn this feature off lol – Jamie Hutber Oct 30 '18 at 10:45

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 31 '15 at 08:16

Try the right option key+click

This works for me using parallels with Windows 8.1, I haven’t personally come across web apps that use this, so I can't test this.

Right click actually emulates control+click due to the history of apple sticking with a single button mouse for so long, thus the context menu used the control click method, plus Mac OS X doesn’t have a context key on the keyboard like Windows Keyboards (located on the right side of the main keyboard, in-between the control and alt (alt GR) or windows keys).

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 31 '15 at 07:19

5

I found that I can use Option+Command in lieu of Control when using online Flash training applications (I'm using 10.8.5 Mountain Lion).

edited Jan 31 '15 at 07:19

Giacomo1968

5,623

answered Jan 14 '15 at 17:34

Alan Cook

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Stanislav Debalchuk · Answer 5 · 2019-06-24T21:52:23.137

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BetterTouchTool allows ctrl-click remapping. There is an example of ctrl-click to alt-space remapping for IDEA.

edited Jun 24 '19 at 21:52

answered Mar 14 '19 at 18:08

Stanislav Debalchuk

71

Ooh, this is perfect - and a useful tip for PyCharm too - alt+Space is much more useful and the silly right click menu. – yeliabsalohcin Jan 10 '22 at 15:48

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 15 '15 at 04:02

3

Option+Command+LeftClick, recommended by mvreijn for VMware Windows 7 guests, works quite nicely in Citrix connections to Windows 7 machines.

answered Apr 15 '15 at 04:02

Scott Johnson

131

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 05 '22 at 14:40

2

I use a Linux VM in VMware Fusion for development, where I want to ctrl-click to navigate to method definitions.

In the VM settings for "keyboard and mouse", choose the "Mac" profile instead of the Standard profile. This disables the OSX stubbornness for the respective VM.

answered May 05 '22 at 14:40

Philippp

121

I've been going around this for a few months. Why is the "Mac" profile the one that is actually working like it should in Windows? – Saša Ćetković Feb 11 '24 at 13:18

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 19 '15 at 09:47

0

In System Preferences->Keyboard->Modifier Keys, you can change the function of the keys. If you switch cmd with ctrl, ctrl will work with applications as ctrl without the right click.

edited Dec 19 '15 at 09:47

klanomath

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answered Dec 19 '15 at 01:48

Michael Smith

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score -3 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 31 '15 at 06:31

-3

just go to Accessibility > Keyboard > Open Keyboard Preferences... > Modifier Keys > Contro (^) Key > No Action

click ok then youre done!

answered Jan 31 '15 at 06:31

user111862

3

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What?! You can't mean that. – Dalibor Filus Jun 05 '15 at 15:00
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Not a good idea—this just disables the Control key entirely. – krs013 Nov 29 '15 at 18:21
this is no solution... you must be joking.. this way you can;t use the ctrl key for any other shortcut ! – Asped Sep 27 '16 at 12:08

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

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