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Disabling ctrl+click as right-click is useful because:

  1. Many web app rely on ctrl+click (typically for multiple selection).
  2. 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?

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  • 3
    Note: for the first point it's cleary a design flaw, since on OSX multiple selection if achieve with Cmd.
    – Matthieu Riegler
    Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 16:00

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
31

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: Karabiner Elements kernel extension request

The second will be to allow input monitoring: Karabiner Elements input monitoring request

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: Disable Ctrl Click modification

Note: If you are using a mouse, you have to additionally go to "Devices" and enable "Modify events" on the device you are using.

This will add the complex modification to Karabiner Elements and enable the functionality: Karabiner Elements complex modifications

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.

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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
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 12:07
  • 2
    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
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 11:58
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    This application has changed, you'll need to import this "Complex Modification" rule pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/complex_modifications/…
    – Ryan Williams
    Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 2:49
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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
    Commented Nov 11, 2020 at 0:10
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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
    Commented Dec 27, 2020 at 19:13
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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.

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  • How do i turn this feature off lol
    – Jamie Hutber
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 10:45
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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).

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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).

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5

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

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  • Ooh, this is perfect - and a useful tip for PyCharm too - alt+Space is much more useful and the silly right click menu.
    – yeliabsalohcin
    Commented Jan 10, 2022 at 15:48
3

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

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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.

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  • 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
    Commented Feb 11 at 13:18
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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.

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-3

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

click ok then youre done!

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  • 3
    What?! You can't mean that.
    – Dalibor Filus
    Commented Jun 5, 2015 at 15:00
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    Not a good idea—this just disables the Control key entirely.
    – krs013
    Commented Nov 29, 2015 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
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 12:08

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