ElanTech Touchpad: Modifying Default Browser Launch Behaviour and Adding Middle Click Support

My current computer, the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD runs on Windows 8 and comes with the new ElanTech SmartPad, which uses the Asus Smart Gesture software by default. The same goes for the UX31 and UX21. To turn enable three-finger right click in browsers (equivalent to middle button on the mouse), I used the ElanTech drivers instead, in the method described here (also copied below): http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/684036-enabling-3-finger-tap-middle-click-other-functions-elan-touchpads-zenbooks-etc.html.

Link to ElanTech driver: http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Touchpad&os=30

I noticed a hidden feature with the touchpad driver, which was that if I held three fingers on the touchpad for 1 second, it would launch Internet Explorer, even though my default browser was Chrome. To change the default browser that is launched when pressing and holding three fingers on the touchpad, the steps below worked:

1. Start > type “regedit” and press enter to start Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Elantech\Favorite
3. Double-click on the REG_SZ key named ‘0’, and change the link from IE to the browser of your choice (for Chrome the executable is located at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe, for Firefox it is at C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe by default)
4. Go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Elantech\SmartPad and set Tap3_Press_Enable to 1.

That’s it! Tapping and holding the touchpad with three fingers for 1 second will launch the browser of choice. You can also have it launch an application.

In addition, middle click support can be added so that tapping three fingers in a browser will open up a new tab. This feature is disabled by default and must be enabled by modifying the following registry values in the Registry Editor:

1. Start > type “regedit” and press enter to start Registry Editor, then go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Elantech\SmartPad
2. Set Tap_Three_Finger to 2, Tap_Three_Finger_Enable to 1, and Tap_Three_Finger_ShowItem to 0 to enable three finger tapping to open new tabs in the browser
3.  Set Tap_Two_Finger to 1 and Tap_Two_Finger_Enable to 1 to enable two finger tapping to show context menu


Copied from the link http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/684036-enabling-3-finger-tap-middle-click-other-functions-elan-touchpads-zenbooks-etc.html:

[GUIDE] Enabling 3 finger tap middle click and other functions on Elan touchpads (Zenbooks, etc.)
DISCLAIMER: Any mods to the registry, including whatever that is mentioned in this post, may brick your windows installation. All mods are done at your own risk and i am not responsible for ANY issues that may arise as a result of any instruction you may have followed in this thread.

You need to be on the elan drivers, the one with the elan configuration panel. not the one with Asus Smart Gesture.

Link to the Elan touchpad driver for UX31A as follows.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B93qmqYil_3TQlhyaEdyT05GWlE

The following steps will enable menus that relate to functions that are hidden by default.
1) Start > type “regedit” and press enter to start Registry Editor
2) Go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Elantech\SmartPadDisplay
3) For all REG_DWORD keys, set hex value to 1
4) To enable 3 finger tap, go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Elantech\SmartPad, set hex value of Tap3_Press_Enable to 1
5) From windows taskbar, double click to open the Elan config panel
6) Notice that many new settings are avail. Set whatever u need to and Apply. NOTE: upon closing the panel, the next time the config panel is launched, the items that are hidden by default will not appear. Youd have to do the registry edits to make them appear again.

Personal suggestions:
3 finger tap for middle click (you should see this as a dropdown menu under the tapping panel)
3/4 finger swipe functions
Under “Additional” tab, “Palm Tracking” set to maximum. <= this makes the touchpad a whole lot more well behaved when you are typing.