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By default, on Mac OS, the context menu, as well as application menu (top bar menu items), show up right as the right mouse button (or ctrl + click) is pressed down, and the option under the cursor selected right as the button is released.

This is an undesirable behaviour to me, who often right-clicks while still slightly moving the mouse, which can lead to accidentally selecting the first option in the menu instantly.

Is there a way to make the context menu behaviour more Windows-like, where the context menu only appears once the right mouse button is released, and an option can only be selected by clicking again?

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  • 1
    Related : superuser.com/questions/1083706/…
    – Ariane
    Jan 11, 2017 at 15:22
  • For what it's worth, it would probably be easier to re-train your clicking habits than to find a solution for this. The menu on mouse down is an intentional feature, aimed at those who click and hold then drag to the menu item, to be selected on release. Jan 20, 2017 at 13:28
  • Yes. I know it's intentional. But after months of using a Mac, I still occasionally make the mistake, and it's a big frustration every time, so it'd be nice if I were able to change it.
    – Ariane
    Jan 20, 2017 at 14:37
  • This is the exact reason why I tend to avoid Mac - things that operate one way in any other OS operate differently in macOS (or OS X, depending on which version you're using). Something like this would be easy enough to implement in Linux, if you were good with the source code. Should be plausible in Windows using C++ or another unmanaged language (I wrote an app that runs as a service to register right clicks as left clicks on icons in system tray). OS X? I don't even know if it's possible, let alone easy enough for the average end-user Jan 20, 2017 at 15:35

1 Answer 1

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+100

You could perhaps map the right-click to something else; using Karabiner for OS X up to 10.11, and the simpler Karabiner-Elements for later versions

This means mapping right-click to an unused key-combination, and mapping another and safer combination to issue the real right-click.

As I'm not using the Mac, I cannot test this method.

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  • Will try and get back to you
    – Ariane
    Jan 20, 2017 at 14:38
  • Any news on your tests?
    – harrymc
    Jan 23, 2017 at 9:42
  • My apologies. I forgot about it in the weekend. I'll try that at lunch.
    – Ariane
    Jan 23, 2017 at 15:50
  • I barely had time to eat yesterday. So. I found something interesting. Something called BlockUntilKeyUp. Sounds promising. I tried it, but I must have done something wrong, because this just blocks blocks right-click entirely. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/xml.html.en#syntax-__BlockUntilKeyUp__ My code : pastebin.com/mFYgyzZ0
    – Ariane
    Jan 24, 2017 at 14:38

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