We’re Just Not Clicking (Premium)

I recently wrote about an isolated issue with keyboard shortcuts in Windows 11. Here's a problem with touchpads and right-clicking. But this one isn't isolated: It impacts everyone.

Touchpads--trackpads, clickpads, whatever you want to call them--are interesting. They come in different sizes, offer different capabilities, and can be mechanical or haptic-based. But when you strip away all the details, they all offer the same basic features. You can use them to move the mouse cursor around on the screen and single-click ("click") and right-click on-screen items. Just as you do with a mouse.

It's the right-click bit that's broken.

Different touchpads handle this action--which was briefly called secondary-click in deference to the lefties in the Windows user base who swap how the two primary actions work--differently. I assume every touchpad out there lets you click anywhere on the surface of the touchpad with two fingers to trigger the right-click action. And some also let you single-click in the lower-right corner of the touchpad--or perhaps some "zone" on the right side of the touchpad--to trigger a right-click. (Less common are dedicated buttons for the various click actions, but they exist as well.)

What I'm looking at here explicitly is the "standard" or most common touchpad action that triggers a right-click: The two-finger tap gesture. It's enabled by default by Windows if you have a PC with a touchpad. We've all used it.

We've also all failed in using it. You've probably blamed yourself. I'm here to tell you that it's not you. This is a bug in Windows. Or, more properly, a mistake. The wrong behavior.

Here's what happens. Or, one example of how this bug occurs in the real world.

You select a block of text in some app, right-click it with the touchpad, and choose "Copy" in the context menu that appears. Then, you navigate to another app and paste that text into it. You could do this second (paste) action with the touchpad, type Ctrl + V, whatever. It doesn't matter.

Sometimes it works. Maybe most times. But sometimes it doesn't. Either nothing pastes. Or it pastes the item you previously copied to the Clipboard. This indicates one of two things. That the Copy action you just tried failed, or the Clipboard is empty or contains an item that is incompatible with pasting into the current app.

(To be clear, it doesn't matter which apps you use, or what kind of PC or touchpad you have. This is universal.)

But how could the Copy action fail? You blame yourself. We all do. You must have made a mistake. So you do it again. And this time, it works. Maybe. Sometimes you have to try yet again. Eventually, you'll figure out something that works and you move on. Most probably don't think about what just happened. Or realize it's not their fault.

Let's think through this logically.

You select some text. You right-click it using the touchpad. You select "Copy." But it doesn't copy. Why? And what did it do?

I...