How to enable three finger drag-n-drop in Windows 10 on a macbook

In my previous post we saw how easy it is to update a Boot Camp Windows installed on a MacBook to Windows 10, and how you can easily install the latest version of your Windows drivers provided by Apple. In this post I am going to focus on a different issue that annoys all of us who regularly switch back and forth between Windows and OSX, (you guessed it) Trackpad gestures and more specifically three finger drag-n-drop.

One of the features you’ll miss when you switch from OSX to Windows is the ability to drag with three fingers. You can still enable One-Finger-Dragging in the Boot Camp Control Panel (you need to double-click on its icon displayed beside the clock in your taskbar). You just need to go to the Trackpad tab and enable it:

It’s better than nothing, but it’s not good enough, I know. What if we had three finger dragging and all those cool gestures in Windows 10? Is it hidden somewhere? No, it’s not these options are simply not provided by Apple in it’s Trackpad driver for Windows, but don’t be discouraged you still have one possibility at this moment. Some smart guys have developed a free driver called TrackPad++ that makes it possible to have all those gestures and three finger dragging plus many more and it’s free! It’s actually a wrapper around Apple’s native driver.

The real three finger dragging

Basically you need to download and install two small software. The first one changes a setting in Windows registry to let you install unsigned drivers and the second one is the driver itself. Obviously the developers of a free driver cannot afford to pay a fortune to Microsoft on a yearly basis to review and sign their driver! After you install both software you can uninstall the first one without any issue if you don’t like it 😉

Here are the links to these two software:

1. Power Plan Assistant 3.2a
2. TrackPad++

Take a look at their website for more information and instructions. Don’t be fooled by a not so beautiful UI in their app, it works like a charm and there is no annoying popup, ad or anything like that! You might even like to keep the first app as well, it will give you some extra options around power management, keyboard’s backlight, etc.