Editing Mouse button (section)

==Microsoft Windows==
[[File:Microsoft IMO -- detail (front).jpg|250px|thumb|[[Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical]] with ambidextrous side buttons and a scroll wheel]]

[[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] currently recognises a vertical and horizontal [[Scroll wheel|scrolling]] plus five buttons: left, right, middle, back and forwards.

Microsoft formalised the convention that the second (right) button would open a context menu as of [[Microsoft Windows|Windows 95]]. Prior to this point, it was an application-specific button.

Microsoft introduced the [[scroll wheel]] with Windows 98 and the [[Microsoft IntelliMouse]]. Smooth scrolling was added in Windows Vista, with a Microsoft-specific use of the HID standard.<ref>
Microsoft - [http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/wheel.mspx Enhanced Wheel Support in Windows]. Dated 2010-11-10.  Retrieved 2016-04-06</ref>
The wheel can also be pressed - as the third (middle) button - a feature that remains lost on many computer users.
Microsoft's ''IntelliMouse Optical'' added side buttons for Back and Forward commands, for use in Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer (File Explorer).

While the middle button had been supported and used in application programs for a long time, it was given functionality in the OS first in Windows 7: clicking the middle button on a taskbar icon (with grouping enabled) starts a new instance of the selected program, while middle-clicking one of the windows in the program's window list (Aero Basic) or thumbnail popup (Aero Glass) closes that window.