ThreeFingerDrag

This project imitates macOS three finger drag experience on Windows trackpads

• You can initiate a drag by just dragging three fingers on your trackpad.
• When your fingers reach the edge of the trackpad, lift and re-place three fingers in center to continue dragging.
• The drag ends, immediately, if you start another gesture, or after few seconds, when your fingers leave the trackpad.
• This allows dragging a file or window with just one hand.

Building code 🛠️

1. Open src/tfd.sln in Visual Studio.
2. Press Ctrl+B / Ctrl+Shift+B to build code.

How do I run the app?

Download and run tfd.exe or build the code and run the app.

Notes:

• You'll also need to disable other three finger gestures in windows trackpad settings

• You'll need to run tfd.exe as administrator, if you want to drag other programs that run as administrator (ex. Task Manager)

  

Customize Settings

You can set various environment variables to change drag behavior (ex. drag speed multiplier, velocity).

The easiest way to configure this is using powershell script that runs tfd.exe app.

Ex. Create powershell script named tfd.ps1 with below contents:

# auto run as admin, if started from non-admin shell
if (-not(([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]"Administrator")))
{
    $args = "& '$($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)'";
    Start-Process powershell -Verb:runAs -ArgumentList:$args;
    return;
}

# when script re-runs as admin, it'll run this part
$env:DragSpeedMultiplier=1.5;
$env:DragEndConfidenceThreshold=5;
$env:DragStartFingersApartDistThreshold=2.6;

& "/yourPathTo/tfd.exe";

Env variables

Below env. variables have pre-set values, but you can override based on your needs.

1. DragSpeedMultiplier

• The higher the value, the farther cursor will move for some trackpad movement with your fingers (think mouse speed slider in windows).

2. DragEndConfidenceThreshold

• If drag is ending too often as you 'lift and re-place' three fingers on trackpad, increase this value.

3. DragVelocityUpperBoundX & DragVelocityUpperBoundY

• The faster your fingers move on trackpad, the faster the cursor will move. These values define upper bounds for cursor velocity in X/Y direction.
• Set both to 1 if you want linear cursor movement and >1 for dynamic cursor speed.

4. DragEndMillisecondsThreshold

• The number of milliseconds to wait before drag is ended, if three fingers are NOT touching trackpad.

5. DragStartFingersApartDistThreshold

• Ensures drag starts only if three finger contacts are approximately close to each other.
• The distance between three contacts is calculated, and if largest_dist < (smallest_dist x this_var), then drag is initiated.