How mouse button re-mappings work?

[RJSmith92]

I installed my new mouse (Anker 2000 DPI Wireless) and then the driver which installs a program named '5-button mouse' that allows me to remap what each button does, standard stuff and everything works fine.

 

But it got me wondering where are the settings for what each button does stored? I presumed the registry but was unable to find anything and after looking online they don't seem to be stored there.

 

Looking at the mouse in device manager and it is using the generic mouclass.sys and mouhid.sys drivers that come with Windows so I'm just wondering how these drivers know what I want each button to do?

 

For example if I change one of the side buttons to cut rather than copy, where are these settings stored and how do the drivers know where they are?

 

I know the whole driver stack is very complicated but I would appreciate if someone could just give a basic overview of the process.

 

Thanks.