Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons

[-Huub-]

Hi all,

Does someone know a way of disabling the left mouse click but only on the windows taskbar and only for the most left icons like the clock, network and sound icons. Not for the windows start icon or a program window.

So only for this area:

[MilesAhead]

Try this script

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
2. ; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
3. SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
5. #IfWinActive ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
6. $LButton::
7. return

To use it you need the free AutoHotkey tools from here:
https://autohotkey.com/

You can either run the script as is, or compile it to exe so that it will run on PCs without AHK installed.

[-Huub-]

Hi MilesAhead,

This blocks all left mouse clicks, I would only like to disable it on the far left icons, in this screenshot I have marked the area in yellow that I would like to disable the lefts mouse click for.
Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons

[Ath]

the far left icons

--Huub- (July 05, 2016, 07:22 AM)

the far right icons, right...?

[-Huub-]

Of course, I mean the area far right, it's marked yellow on the picture.

[MilesAhead]

Hi MilesAhead,

This blocks all left mouse clicks, I would only like to disable it on the far left icons, in this screenshot I have marked the area in yellow that I would like to disable the lefts mouse click for.
[ Invalid Attachment ]

--Huub- (July 05, 2016, 07:22 AM)

I should have known it would not be that easy. 

[MilesAhead]

This one seems to prevent a double click.  But if an icon does something on a single click of the left mouse button it will still fire.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
2. ; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
3. SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
5. #IfWinActive ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
6. $LButton::
7. MouseGetPos,X,Y,Win,Contr
8. If (Contr != "ToolBarWindow321")
9.         Send, {LButton}
10. return

Edit: If you are on Windows 10 the control name may be ToolBarWindow322.  You can use the Window Spy tool that comes with AutoHotkey to check the Class NN of the control.

I think ToolBarWindow321 is good for XP up to Windows 8.1.

[Ath]

Edit: If you are on Windows 10 the control name may be ToolBarWindow322.

-MilesAhead (July 05, 2016, 10:43 AM)

Confirmed: ToolBarWindow322 when on Win10.

[MilesAhead]

I posted my script on the AHK "ask for help" forum.  Perhaps someone there can get it to block single clicks when the focus shifts from another window.  It seems the system reacts to the mouse click before the click changes the focus.

This is interesting to me because many of my tray utilities will show an about box if the icon is left clicked once.

[4wd]

This will block the LMB in the SysTray.

HOWEVER, there may possibly be unforeseen consequences, ie. how do you propose to use any tray icon menu item if it appears within the SysTray area?

Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons

The Exit menu item for BTLMB falls within the area covered by the SysTray, since the LMB is blocked there is no way to choose the menu item and exit the program.

This is why it has a hotkey of Ctrl+Shift+Alt+f to exit it 

Ideally you'd check to see what is under the mouse and process depending on what's there, (menu, etc), but since I'm lazy ... the source is there to get you started 

You could probably fudge it by subtracting the number of pixels covered by what you don't want affected, (which will be static because the size of the Clock, etc aren't dynamic).

Only tested on Win10Pro x64.

BTLMB.au3 - Block Tray LMB

Code: AutoIt [Select]

1. #include "MouseOnEvent.au3" ; MouseOnEvent UDF
2.  
3. HotKeySet("^!+f", "_Exit") ; Ctrl + Shift + Alt + f
4. OnAutoItExitRegister("_Exit") ; Call the _Exit routine when the program is terminated somehow
5.  
6. ; Set up tray icon menu/tooltip
7. Opt("TrayMenuMode", 3)
8. Opt("TrayOnEventMode", 1)
9. TraySetToolTip(StringLeft(@ScriptName, StringLen(@ScriptName) - 4))
10. TrayCreateItem('Exit',-1,-1,0)
11. TrayItemSetOnEvent(-1,'_Exit')
12.  
13. ; Display area
14.  
15. ; Hook into Primary Mouse Button down event
16. _MouseSetOnEvent($MOUSE_PRIMARYDOWN_EVENT, "_PrimaryDown")
17.  
18. While Sleep(100)
19. ;~      Twiddle twiddle
20. WEnd
21.  
22. Func _Exit()
23.         ; Release the event hooks and Exit
24.         _MouseSetOnEvent($MOUSE_PRIMARYDOWN_EVENT)
25.         OnAutoItExitUnRegister("_Exit")
26.         Exit
27. EndFunc
28.  
29. Func _PrimaryDown() ; PMB pressed
30.         Local $bBlock = False
31.         ; Get taskbar size and position, it should be visible if we're clicking on it
32.         Local $aTaskbar_Pos = WinGetPos( "[Class:Shell_TrayWnd]")
33.         ;~ $aTaskbar_Pos[0] = x
34.         ;~ $aTaskbar_Pos[1] = y
35.         ;~ $aTaskbar_Pos[2] = width
36.         ;~ $aTaskbar_Pos[3] = height
37.  
38.         If IsArray($aTaskbar_Pos) Then ; Check if array is returned
39.  
40.                 ; Get location of Notification area but only interested in the width/height
41.                 ; X/Y position returned is incorrect if Taskbar is Bottom or Right
42.                 Local $aTray_Pos = ControlGetPos(WinGetHandle("[CLASS:Shell_TrayWnd]"), "", "[CLASS:TrayNotifyWnd]")
43.                 ;~ $aTray_Pos[0] = x
44.                 ;~ $aTray_Pos[1] = y
45.                 ;~ $aTray_Pos[2] = width
46.                 ;~ $aTray_Pos[3] = height
47.  
48.                 ; Check if Taskbar is visible
49.                 If ( $aTaskbar_Pos[0] > -3) And ( $aTaskbar_Pos[1] > -3) And ( $aTaskbar_Pos[0] < ( @DesktopWidth - 5)) And ( $aTaskbar_Pos[1] < ( @DesktopHeight - 5)) Then
50.                         $aMouse_Pos = MouseGetPos() ; Get current mouse position
51.                 ;~ $aMouse_Pos[0] = x
52.                 ;~ $aMouse_Pos[1] = y
53.                         Select
54.                                 Case $aTaskbar_Pos[2] = @DesktopWidth   ; Taskbar at Top or Bottom
55.                                         If $aTaskbar_Pos[1] = 0 Then                    ; Top
56.                                                 If ($aMouse_Pos[0] >= (@DesktopWidth - $aTray_Pos[2])) And ($aMouse_Pos[0] <= @DesktopWidth) Then
57.                                                         If ($aMouse_Pos[1] >= 0) And ($aMouse_Pos[1] <= $aTray_Pos[3]) Then
58.                                                                 $bBlock = True
59.                                                         EndIf
60.                                                 EndIf
61.                                         Else ; Bottom
62.                                                 If ($aMouse_Pos[0] >= (@DesktopWidth - $aTray_Pos[2])) And ($aMouse_Pos[0] <= @DesktopWidth) Then
63.                                                         If ($aMouse_Pos[1] >= (@DesktopHeight - $aTray_Pos[3])) And ($aMouse_Pos[1] <= @DesktopHeight) Then
64.                                                                 $bBlock = True
65.                                                         EndIf
66.                                                 EndIf
67.                                         EndIf
68.                                 Case $aTaskbar_Pos[3] = @DesktopHeight  ; Taskbar at Left or Right
69.                                         If $aTaskbar_Pos[0] = 0 Then                    ; Left
70.                                                 If ($aMouse_Pos[0] <= $aTray_Pos[2]) And ($aMouse_Pos[0] >= 0) Then
71.                                                         If ($aMouse_Pos[1] >= (@DesktopHeight - $aTray_Pos[3])) And ($aMouse_Pos[1] <= @DesktopHeight) Then
72.                                                                 $bBlock = True
73.                                                         EndIf
74.                                                 EndIf
75.                                         Else ; Right
76.                                                 If ($aMouse_Pos[0] >= (@DesktopWidth - $aTray_Pos[2])) And ($aMouse_Pos[0] <= @DesktopWidth) Then
77.                                                         If ($aMouse_Pos[1] >= @DesktopHeight - ($aTray_Pos[3])) And ($aMouse_Pos[1] <= @DesktopHeight) Then
78.                                                                 $bBlock = True
79.                                                         EndIf
80.                                                 EndIf
81.                                         EndIf
82.                                 Case Else
83. ;~                                      ConsoleWrite("Mouse X: " & $aMouse_Pos[0] & "    Mouse Y: " & $aMouse_Pos[1] & @CRLF)
84.                         EndSelect
85.                 EndIf
86.         EndIf
87.         If $bBlock Then
88. ;~              ConsoleWrite("SysTray click X: " & $aMouse_Pos[0] & "    Mouse Y: " & $aMouse_Pos[1] & @CRLF)
89.                 Return 1 ; Block the default processing
90.         EndIf
91. EndFunc   ;==>_PrimaryDown

BTW, the reason I'm grabbing coords for the Taskbar and Tray on LMB click is because you can move the Taskbar around while the program is still running and it'll be happy.
The If...Then statements could probably be consolidated a bit better too, (did I mention I'm lazy?).

Might give someone an idea or two.

UPDATE:

• Check if an array is returned for Taskbar position/size (Win 10 doesn't return array for second click on Start)

[-Huub-]

Hello 4wd,

I tried your suggestion with the autoit stuff, it seems to work all fine but when I double click the windows start menu I get following error:

Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons

Any idea what could cause this ?

br

[4wd]

OK, I don't get that because I use ClassicShell to replace the Win10 Start Menu - I can see where it's happening, I'll have a look at it.

EDIT: Apparently the second click on the Start button doesn't result in an array being returned when the Taskbar position is fetched.  This should be easy to fix by just putting in a check and exiting the function if an array is not returned.

UPDATED

[MilesAhead]

Removing the #IfWinActive and making the LButton global seems to have done the trick.  Try this out if you will.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
2. ; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
3. SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
5.  
6. $LButton::
7. MouseGetPos,X,Y,Win,Contr
8. If (Contr != "ToolBarWindow321")
9.         Send, {LButton}
10. return

[-Huub-]

Hi MilesAhead,

Thanks for your effort but this still doesn't work, I can still click on the systray clock icon with the left mouse button.
The script from 4wd worked only I got an error when I was double clicking the start menu button.
Is there a way of disabling the left mous click based on the mouse position x and Y area ?


br

Huub

[4wd]

The script from 4wd worked only I got an error when I was double clicking the start menu button.

--Huub- (July 06, 2016, 08:23 AM)

It's been fixed. 

[-Huub-]

Hello 4wd,

Yes you fixed it, cool! What part/line did you change ?


Br

Huub

[MilesAhead]

Hi MilesAhead,

Thanks for your effort but this still doesn't work, I can still click on the systray clock icon with the left mouse button.
The script from 4wd worked only I got an error when I was double clicking the start menu button.
Is there a way of disabling the left mous click based on the mouse position x and Y area ?


br

Huub

--Huub- (July 06, 2016, 08:23 AM)

You simply need to use the Window Spy to get the name of the control/window under the mouse cursor and add to the If statement.  It will vary with version of Windows etc..

All I have now is Windows 8.0.  Also I only have a Laptop.  I cannot test other versions of Windows or multi-monitor stuff.

[4wd]

What part/line did you change ?

--Huub- (July 06, 2016, 10:07 AM)

Code: AutoIt [Select]

1. If IsArray($aTaskbar_Pos) Then ; Check if array is returned

[4wd]

You simply need to use the Window Spy to get the name of the control/window under the mouse cursor and add to the If statement.  It will vary with version of Windows etc..

-MilesAhead (July 06, 2016, 11:03 AM)

Windows 10:
Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons
Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons
Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons
Disable left mouse click on windows taskbar only at the most right icons

The control for the icon tray is determined by the particular Instance number, so I don't know if it's always going to be ToolbarWindow322 as shown in image 1, same with the control for the Input Method button in image 4, (and the button for Hidden icons if it exists).
Kind of why I went for area rather than a specific control.

[-Huub-]

If IsArray($aTaskbar_Pos) Then ; Check if array is returned

Thx 4wd!!!

[-Huub-]

Hi MilesAhead,

Your suggestion worked partial, but it has a negative side effect if I use your code together with the window name under win 10, the LMB on the clock is blocked like I asked.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
2. ; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
3. SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
4. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
5.  
6. $LButton::
7. MouseGetPos,X,Y,Win,Contr
8. If (Contr != "TrayClockWClass1")
9.         Send, {LButton}
10. return

I can even use the LMB on the windows start menu. But the negative side effect is that the LMB also doesn't work anymore for all program windows, I could not move the open program windows on my screen.

[MilesAhead]

Huub I guess it is not so simple.  I tried a bunch of things but if I free up the drag operation then left click in the off limits zone leaks through the first time.  Just like my first script.  If the au3 script is working I guess I would go with that.

I did not get any response when I posted on the ahk help forum. So I am out of ideas.