How To Fix Right Click Not Working On Windows?

Computer mice are such units that are highly prone to damage. With continuous clicking on its button, most mice tend to get broken easily, especially the buttons.

One of the common issues with the mouse is the right-click not working on the computer. However, the problem is not always hardware related. Windows users have experienced no response while right-clicking, even when the mouse is completely fine.

Thus, the software and different settings within the system are equally the culprits here.

Table of Contents

How to Fix the Right Click Not Working Issue?

If you are using a wireless mouse, make sure that it is turned on and connected to your computer properly. Furthermore, for a wired one, you should first inspect whether there are any hardware faults on the mouse.

Take the mouse and use it on another computer to see if it functions well there. Similarly, you can also get a spare mouse and connect it to your PC to see whether it works there. If the spare mouse works on your PC or yours does not work on another PC, then probably the issue is hardware related, and it’s best to replace the mouse.

However, if your mouse works on another computer, then the software and system configurations may be the culprit.

Disable Tablet Mode

Windows 10 provided the feature to use tablet mode in PCs, especially to facilitate the touch screen computers. However, sometimes, while using the laptop in tablet mode, the mouse buttons may not work properly. So, you should try disabling the tablet mode if you are using it.

Press Windows + ‘I’ to open Settings.
Look for Tablet Mode and click on it.
Change the toggle bar to Off to disable it.

See if the right-click of the mouse starts working again. Windows 11 changes the mode to tablet automatically when you disconnect the keyboard, and it does not have the option to enable or disable tablet mode.

So, in the case of Windows 11, you can reconnect the keyboard properly to exit the normal mode or rotate your screen to get back to the laptop mode.

Restart Windows Explorer

Sometimes, you may not be able to use mouse buttons if the Windows explorer is frozen due to some system errors. In such a case, you will have to restart the explorer to fix the issue.

Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc buttons.
Navigate to the Details tab and find explorer.exe.
Click on it and select End task.
Now, click on File and select Run New Task.
Enter explorer to run the file explorer again.

Try clicking the right key of your mouse to inspect it.

Perform a Clean Boot

The issue can also occur if some third-party applications interfere with the system and drivers. Thus, you should identify such conflicting programs and remove them. To do so, you need to perform a clean boot of your system.

Open the Run Dialog box by pressing Windows + ‘R’.
Type msconfig and hit Enter to open System Configuration.
Navigate to the Services tab and check the Hide all Microsoft services box.
Now select all the services shown and click Disable all.
Go to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager.
Select a program in the list and click Disable.
Do this for all the programs.

Reboot your PC and see if the right-click has started working again. If it has, then enable each program using Task manager one by one, and find the one that causes the problem again. You can then uninstall that application to solve the issue.

Disable the Default Context Menu Removal Feature

The context menu is the option you see when you right-click on any file or desktop. There is a feature in Windows to remove this context menu. So, if this has been enabled, then you may not see the context menu and believe that the right-click is not working.

Thus, you should disable this feature from the Local Group Policy.

Open the Run dialog box.
Type gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.
Navigate to User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>File Explorer.
Look for Remove File Explorer’s default context menu and double-click on it.
Set it to Disabled and click on OK.

See if the problem still persists.

Run Hardware Troubleshooter

Windows in-built troubleshooter can also identify several issues with the mouse and re-calibrate the settings to fix the hardware problems.

Open the Run dialog box.
Enter msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic to run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter.
Click Next to start the process.

It will automatically search for problems and repair them. See if the mouse functions well now.

Update or Reinstall Mouse Drivers

If the mouse drivers are outdated or corrupted, then the device may start working abnormally. Hence, you should try updating the mouse drivers on your system.

Press Windows + ‘X’ and select Device Manager from the context menu.
Expand the Mice and other pointing devices option.
Double-click on the HID-compliant mouse device or similar.
Go to the Drivers tab and click Update Driver.
Choose Search automatically for drivers. You can also install the latest driver directly from the manufacturer’s website.

See if the mouse works properly again. But if updating the drivers does not work out, you may have to uninstall the device and let Windows install the driver on its own.