ok.
Control panel, "Programs and Features" Uninstalled Thinkpad Untranav Utility and driver items.
Rebooted. Confirmed that these applications ar eno longer present.
Checked Device Manager, under Mice and Pointing Devices. All it shows there is "PS/2 compatible Mouse"
Results:
1. Right click with touchpad right switch now generates a right click.
2. Left, and right click drags with the touchpad lower switches now work, but there is a tendency for the finger touch to move the cursor off target before the press is completed.
Suggestion to Synaptics.
When pressing one of the touchpad switches, there will always be a finger touch on the touchpad sensing surface first, which will probably have a negative effect.
To avoid this, any initial touch in the lower left or right areas should be ignored, and any cursor motion generated by that touch should be undone as soon as the switch closes.
Downloaded latest driver and utility.
Installing driver (15.3.6.0 / 6hgx40ww) first, and restart.
Result for driver reinstall:
1. Right click with touchpad right switch works
2. Right click multiple swipe drag works.
3. Left click drag works, but ONLY if the clicking finger is touching the active area of the pad. If you click too close to the edge, or use an object to press the switch, then the switch closure itself is not recognized. The same issue exists for right clicks.
Actually the behavior seems to be reversed now, You MUST have a finger touch in the areas that prevented movement earlier to register the click event, If you press the switch too high, or too low, or with an object, such as pencil eraser, then there's no click.
So, with the new driver. I get acceptable dragging action as long as my finger isn't too far out of position.
However, doing things like dragging a scrollbar with these buttons is still very frustrating, since the cursor tends to move off target before the switch closes. This can be avoided by bringing the finger down onto the pad very quickly, to close the switch before any movement takes place. A slow press will almost always move the cursor before the click.
Installing the utility (7VGQ14WW) next.
Still works, and the initial lag when trying to drag things is now gone.
So, aside for the cursor to move while clicking, I'd say the problem was fixed by the new driver.
Thanks for the fast responses, and to the driver devs for fixing it this quickly.