Update Thinkpad UltraNav driver

There was an odd issue occurring with the default Lenovo UltraNav driver for my Thinkpad X1 Carbon (1st gen) in which it would seem like click presses would not register. I would often have to click on something twice. It got really annoying and a web search led to a forum post where someone recommended updating the driver.

While Lenovo have not released an updated UltraNav driver for this specific model (stuck at version 16-something), I did find a driver from another model (version 18-something) which is much more recent and works well.

After installing this driver you may want to follow the tip in this post about how to re-enable functionality for the Trackpoint middle-click button, which by default is set to scroll instead of middle-click (which is very annoying).

Ok, so what’s so cool about middle-click? There are a number of things: When web browsing with Firefox, I use the amazing Grab and Drag extension which uses middle-click to drag the page. I cannot live without it. (Chrome has something very similar too but I’m too lazy now to open it and find out.) Its also the easiest way to close a tab in Firefox by middle-clicking on it (the option which is enabled via Tab Mix Plus’ settings).

If you use Photoshop its almost impossible to imagine not having a middle-click functionality. And many other apps can make use of middle-click functionality, often for panning a display or other things.


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