Logitech M720 Button Mapping
The M720 is a decent multi-device mouse, but out of the box it feels pretty barebones. Two thumb buttons, a back/forward column, a clickable scroll wheel, and a DPI toggle. That's it. If you want to actually use this mouse effectively, you need to remap at least a couple of things. I've spent years going through this process on different setups, and most people overcomplicate it. There are really two paths here. The easy path is Logitech Options or Options+. The hard path is something like AutoHotkey if you need fine-grained control. I usually start with the easy path because it takes about five minutes, and most of the time it gets you 80 percent of the way there.
Getting Started with Logitech M720 Button Mapping
Download Logi Options+ from logi.com/options. It's free and it replaced the old Logitech Options app. The old one still works but it doesn't support as many features. Once installed, connect the M720 via the Unifying receiver or Bluetooth, and the software should pick it up within a few seconds. Click on the mouse icon and you'll see every button laid out visually. Click any button and assign an action from the dropdown. You can set functions like Copy, Paste, Zoom In, Task Switcher, or even launch specific apps. Here's where people usually get stuck: the two thumb buttons on the left side. One is mapped to Back and the other to Forward by default. You can change both of those, but if you're trying to map them to something more complex like a macro or a multi-key combo, Options+ won't let you. The dropdown list is fairly limited. That's when I move to the next option. I use AutoHotkey for the stuff that Options+ can't handle. There's a script out there called "m720-remap.ahk" that people share on GitHub and Reddit. I've been running a modified version of it for about three years. It maps the thumb buttons to Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, which sounds simple but changes how I work significantly. The script runs in the background and intercepts those button presses before the OS sees them. It's lightweight, maybe 30 lines of code total. If you're comfortable with basic scripting, I can walk through it. If not, stick with Options+ and accept its limitations.
One thing nobody tells you about the M720: the scroll wheel has two modes. Click the wheel once and you get free-spin mode, click it again and you get ratchet mode. You can't actually map that click through software because it's handled at the hardware level. This matters because if you're someone who uses the wheel click as a middle-click substitute for pasting in browsers, you're out of luck through normal mapping. The workaround is to remap a different button to middle-click using either Options+ or AutoHotkey, and then stop trying to use the wheel click for that purpose.
Get the Full Details
Advanced Issues and Workarounds
I ran into a real problem a while back where the M720's back button would occasionally trigger in Excel even when I had it mapped to forward in Options+. Turns out the issue was that Excel has built-in keyboard shortcuts for back and forward navigation, and they were conflicting with the mouse button mapping. The workaround was to create a custom profile in Options+ specifically for Excel and override the button assignments there. Profiles in Options+ are assigned by application, which most people don't realize exists. You can have completely different button layouts for Chrome, Excel, and your code editor all on the same mouse. Another counter-intuitive thing: the DPI button on the M720 isn't mappable through any software. It cycles through three preset DPI levels (800, 1600, 4000). You can't change those numbers, remap the button, or disable it. If the DPI cycling interrupts your workflow, your only real option is to stop pressing it, or use a piece of tape to physically cover the button. This is annoying but not a dealbreaker. There's also the multi-device switching to consider. The M720 can connect to three computers simultaneously and you switch between them by holding the bottom thumb button for three seconds. When you're doing Logitech M720 Button Mapping across multiple systems, each system needs its own copy of the mapping software installed and configured. The mouse itself doesn't store button mappings in hardware memory. This means if you switch from your main desktop to a laptop, the button remaps you set up won't apply unless the laptop also has Options+ running with the same profile. I learned this the hard way when I spent an afternoon troubleshooting why my custom mappings disappeared after switching devices, only to realize I'd never installed the software on the second machine.
Options+ also has a known bug where it occasionally resets button mappings after a Windows update. Not every time, maybe once every few months, but it happens. The fix is just to reopen the app and verify your mappings are still correct. If they've reset, reapply them. It's a minor inconvenience but worth knowing about so you don't waste time diagnosing a hardware issue when the software just decided to forget your configuration. If you need more than what Options+ and a simple AutoHotkey script can provide, you're probably better off looking at a different mouse. The M720 isn't designed for heavy customization. Its hardware button count is fixed and its DPI settings are locked. For people who want full control over every input, mice like the Logitech G502 or the Razer Pro Click offer more mappable buttons and software that supports complex macros. But if you mainly want to remap a couple of buttons for productivity and you value the M720's battery life and comfort, sticking with Options+ and a small AutoHotkey script will handle it without any real issues.
