How to make your Windows 10 device work for left-handed users

When it comes to setting up a new operating system such as Windows 10, one of the first things many people do is to find out how to change the common right-handed settings to work for left-handed people. Microsoft hasn’t made it easy to find these settings. Most would assume this sort of personal setting would be within the Personalization category of Settings but they are in fact somewhere else and strangely splintered.

The first thing you need to do is open the Settings app. To do this, either swipe in from the right side of the screen on a touch-enabled device like a Surface Pro and press the Settings icon or click on the small Notifications icon in the Taskbar (which looks like a speech bubble with three horizontal lines within it) and click on the Settings icon there.

Once Settings is open, click on Devices. From here, go into the Mouse & touchpad settings and take a look at the first option at the top of the page. This will allow you to select your main mouse button. Most people will want the left button selected if they’re right-handed or right button if they’re left-handed. Fairly quick and easy and likely a setting most won’t have to change more than once.

Another setting that can be adjusted to make a Windows 10 device more lefty-friendly is the stylus or pen settings. To tell Windows 10 which hand you’ll be writing with, simply go into the Pen settings (which are also within the Devices category in the Settings app) and choose which hand you’ll be using from the first pull-down menu.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to make Windows 10 more hand-customised beyond the mouse and pen settings. It would be great for right-handed users on touch devices if they could place the Shutdown and Sleep options on the right side of the screen. Likewise, the Action Center would be a lot more convenient for left-handed users if it could be placed on the left side of the screen.

If you’d like Microsoft to allow for more customizations within Windows 10, make sure to power up the Windows Feedback app (already pre-installed on all Windows 10 devices) and let them know in a suggestion. Also feel free to share your opinion with other lefties and righties down in the comments section on this page.