Mouse tweak guide Updated on October 31, 2001 by Thomas McGuire One of the most
overlooked components of a PC is also the most common. That device is
the Mouse. Getting tired of your current mouse & it’s rather lack
lustre handling? Well, don’t replace it just yet. You can do a
surprising amount of things with your mouse to make it feel like it’s
new once again. Be it improved scrolling, better responsiveness to input
or just more customized to your requirements. Cleaning Those
of you still using ball based mice, such as the an Intellimouse Pro may
find that after a few weeks of use your mouse tends to get less
responsive than it used to be. This is most likely due to dirt on the
rollers (not a problem with optical mice). To clean your rollers &
get that smoothness back in the mouse you should use the following
procedure. 1.
Turn your mouse
over & remove the plastic mouse ball cover (It should only need to
be twisted until it drops off). 2.
Remove the mouse
ball after the cover comes off, you should clean & dry this, water
should do just fine. Make sure you dry the ball thoroughly however.
Place it to one side after its been cleaned. 3.
Check the space
where the mouse ball used to be located; there should be a number of
rollers here. These will need to be cleaned of any built-up dirt. 4.
Depending on
whatever tools you have available e.g. A small knife or cotton bud, use
it to remove any built-up dirt on the rollers (generally it will form a
thin film around the centre of the roller). Do this until all rollers
are clean once again. 5.
Blow/Shake out
any dust from inside the mouse, this will clear out any of the dirt that
may have fallen back inside the mouse during the roller cleaning. 6.
Re-insert the
cleaned mouse ball & re-screw the mouse ball cover on tightly. It
may be a good idea to clean your mouse pad now too (Depending on the
material it’s made from). 7.
You should make
sure no dirt is stuck to the tabs underneath your mouse also; clean this
dirt off as required. This will further improve tracking smoothness. 8.
The cleaning is
now finished, depending on how dirty the mouse ball rollers were in the
first place you should see a noticeable improved in mouse
responsiveness. Repeat
this procedure every month/few weeks or so, this should keep your mouse
movement ultra smooth. Mouse
pads Almost
all of you out there will be resting your mouse on a mouse pad (Expect
some of you with optical mice, perhaps). A mouse pad plays quite an
important part in how well you mouse can be used. Although with the
advent of optical mice the mouse pad is slightly less important
than it used to be. From
my own experience I can highly recommend the Everglide
Giganta Mouse pad. Having a good mouse pad can significantly improve
your ability to navigate the desktop or improve aim (or rather accuracy)
in games & such.
Drivers For starters you should
update your mouse drivers/software. Microsoft Mouse owners can download
the latest Intellipoint software from Microsoft,
the latest Logitech Mouseware can be downloaded Logitech
& the latest Razer
Boomslang drivers here.
These generally contain improved functionality &/or various bug
fixes. To ensure the latest
drivers are actually installed you should use the following procedure.
Right click on My Computer select Properties then; If you are using Windows
2000/XP select the Hardware tab, then Device Manager. Open
Mouse and other pointing devices then select your mouse & hit
the Properties button. Select the Driver tab.
Select the Update
Driver button & run through the Update driver wizard. Select the
x:\WINNT\INF folder (Substitute x with the appropriate
Driver letter) as the location to search (Inf driver files are stored
here, although will need to be installed in order to update your Mouse
driver). If an updated
driver is found, install it, then reboot for the changes to take
effect. If you are using Windows
9x/Me select Device Manager. Open Mouse then select your
mouse & hit the Properties button. Select the Driver
tab.
Click the Update
Driver button & run through the Update driver wizard. Select the
C:\Windows\INF folder (substitute drive letter & Windows
folder as necessary) as the location to search (Inf driver files are
stored here, although will need to be installed in order to update your
mouse driver). If an updated driver is found, install it, then reboot
for the changes to take effect. Troubleshooting Many Mouse problems that
exist are related to games. Here are a few tips to try remedy any game
issues. Of course, you should only need to try these should you
experience Game issues. 1.
Install the latest drivers for the mouse (As shown
earlier) & the latest patch available for the game. 2.
Disable Direct Input. This setting may, or may not
be available in all Games however. 3.
Should find that your Mouse wheel isn’t working try the
following. Click on Start, Settings, then Mouse. In
the Buttons tab re-assign the Wheel Button to a different
button assignment. In the game bind the control setting to the key the
Wheel button is assigned too.
USB
vs. PS/2 Almost all mice available
now are useable in the PS/2 or USB port (Most are packaged with a
converter so they can use either). Both interfaces have their own
different advantages & disadvantages however; USB has a higher default
sample rate – 125Hz. PS/2 only has a default
sample rate of 40Hz (In Windows 9x/Me) & 60Hz (In
Windows NT/2000). Although as you’ll see later on, you can increase
this fairly easily. USB however, is more CPU
reliant than PS/2 (During periods of high CPU usage the mouse may
behave/move erratically), something that won’t appeal to most Gamers.
You can improve USB performance slightly by doing the following however
(NOTE – The following may not be available on all systems). Right
click on My Computer, select Properties (In Windows
2000/XP select Hardware next), then the Device Manager
tab. Scroll down to Universal Serial Bus controllers & select
your USB Universal Host Controller, e.g. VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB
Universal Host Controller in the screenshot beneath.
Open it, then select the
Advanced tab & Tick, Disable USB error detection.
Restart your PC for the change to take effect. This can improve the
responsiveness of USB mice & other USB devices attached to your
system. Mouse
setup
– Intellipoint The following section
describes settings/options available in the Intellipoint 4.01 software.
Although the majority of these settings are available in other mouse
software packages too, such as Logitech Mouseware. Click
on Start, Settings, Mouse. NOTE – The Hardware
tab is not available in Windows 9x/Me. Buttons
Select
the Buttons tab.
Connected
Device. Use the
drop-down menu here to select the Mouse that you have installed
in your machine. Button
Assignments. Use
this section to select the assignments for different buttons/wheel on
your mouse. Customize this as you see fit or Restore Defaults
instead. Enable
program-specific button settings.
Ticking this setting will enable you to customize what
action/task each Mouse Button is assigned to in different Applications.
Should you enable this then select the Settings button.
Use
the Add button to navigate to the exe file of the
Application you to customize Buttons for, e.g. in my case I’ve added
the Word 2000 Application (winword.exe). Should you wish to
remove an Application profile simply select it from the listing &
hit the Remove button. The
section on the right hand side will vary depending on the Mouse you have
installed, simple change the default button settings here as you
see fit, e.g. in my case I’ve assigned the Thumb Buttons to Cut &
Paste respectively. Click Ok once you have made your changes.
Pointers
Now
select the Pointers tab.
Scheme.
Use this drop-down menu to select from a variety of mouse pointer
schemes. I’d recommend selecting None or use the Customize
section to make your own scheme. Make sure to Save your own
scheme if you make one. Enable
pointer shadow
(Unavailable in Windows 9x/Me). Tick this option to enable
the Mouse pointer shadow on the Desktop & (most) Applications. This
can cause problems with a minority of Graphics cards, which may exhibit
a flickering desktop if enabled. Unticking this setting
will disable the pointer shadow & should fix the flickering
the display problem also. Pointer
Options
Select
the Pointer Options tab.
Pointer
Speed. Use this
slider to adjust the responsiveness of your mouse. Sliding the bar to
the right will make your mouse more responsive & vice versa.
The increased responsiveness may make more accurate movements difficult
however. This
slider also affects how much you will need to move your mouse to get to
a desired position, e.g. if you wish to move from the pointer from the
left-hand side of the screen to the right-hand side you will need to
move the mouse further to the right when set to Slow than when
set to Fast. Now select the Advanced button.
Enable
pointer acceleration.
Tick this option to enable accelerated Mouse movements
during periods where you may move the Mouse at a faster than normal rate
in any direction. You
can use the Accelerate button to set whether or not your pointer
icon moves at a faster rate during periods of faster tracking.
Personally I’d recommend leaving the Pointer acceleration
setting Unticked. Now select the Ok button. Vanish.
Tick this setting to enable the removal of the Mouse
pointer while typing. Untick this setting to disable the
removal of the Mouse pointer. Set this option as you see fit. SnapTo.
Tick this setting to allow the mouse pointer to be automatically
moved to the default button upon opening a dialog box. Unticking
this setting will disable this movement. Personally I’d
recommend leaving this Unticked. Show
pointer trails.
Available in Windows 9x/Me this option can be used to customize a Mouse
trail that follows the pointer while moving it. Move the slider to the Right
to increase the length of this trail & vice versa. I’d
highly recommend Unticking this setting, it serves no useful
purpose at all. Show
location of pointer when you press the CTRL key.
Available in Windows 9x/Me, this setting may be useful for those
of you with eyesight problems. When Ticked & you press the
CTRL key a large circle icon will appear around the mouse, indicating
its location. When Unticked this feature is disabled.
Activities
Now
select the Activities tab.
Double-Click
Speed. This slider
sets how quickly you must double-click your mouse to open a folder (or
other duty assigned to double-clicking). Orientation.
This feature can be used to adjust how your Mouse pointer responds to
tracking. Should you be unhappy with the current way then select this
button & take the quick test to reconfigure your Mouse’s
orientation. Be careful, as this can cause some rather odd tracking
methods to be used, e.g. tracking the Mouse left may be required to move
the Pointer up & so on. ClickLock.
Tick this setting to enable the Click-Lock feature. This locks
a button with a single click (press & hold). This has the same
effect as when you hold down Click button, which can be used to
drag folders/files/text, etc. around the screen. Untick this
setting to disable the Click-Lock. If
you need to adjust the amount of time the Click button must be held down
before the lock is activated click the Settings button. Use the
slider bar to adjust the length of time as necessary. Wheel
Now
select the Wheel tab.
Scrolling.
This setting controls how many lines you scroll up/down when rolling the
mouse wheel a notch. Higher values will increase the amount you
scroll & vice versa. I’d recommend leaving this at the default of 3,
although feel free to set this as you see fit. Enable
accelerated scrolling.
Tick this setting to enable accelerated Mouse scrolling;
similar to how regular Mouse Acceleration operates. Select the Advanced
button to further customize this feature.
Move
this slider to the Right to increase the level of
acceleration during periods of increase Mouse scrolling, i.e. rather
than scrolling a pre-defined number of lines this number can be
increased as you scroll faster & vice versa, select Ok once
you have made any changes here. Unticking
this button will disable this feature, which I’d recommend. Wheel
Troubleshooter. Ignore
this section unless you are experiencing Mouse wheel problems, check the
Troubleshooter button if you are. Advanced.
Selecting this button will allow you to choose which Application, if
any, will have Intellipoint Mouse wheel support disabled in. This
doesn’t necessarily disable Mouse wheel support; rather it can
be used to circumvent compatibility problems in some Applications, which
may already provide Mouse wheel support.
Mouseware
While
the sections above apply to those who have Logitech Mouseware installed,
there is a fairly important option available in the Motion tab
with Mouseware installed.
PS/2
Report rate. This
slider bar can be used to adjust the sample rate of your mouse. This
setting changes how often Windows determines the position of your
mouse. Sliding this bar to the Right will make your Mouse
more sensitive to any input, this can improve responsiveness although
may make more accurate movements more awkward, & vice versa. As a
result Logitech Mouseware users do not need to download utilities like PS/2
Rate Plus. Settings
- Windows 2000/XP Windows
2000 has some extra settings available that aren’t available in
Windows 9x/Me (Only available if you are using a PS/2 port mouse). To
gain access to them right click on My Computer,
select the Hardware tab, then Device
Manager. Then open your Mouse
properties. Select the Advanced Settings
tab.
Sample
rate. This setting
changes how often Windows 2000/XP determines the position of your
mouse. Increasing this value will make your Mouse more sensitive
to any input, this can improve responsiveness although may make more
accurate movements more awkward, & vice versa. Wheel
Detection. This
setting can be used to change how Windows 2000/XP will deal with a mouse
wheel. 3 options are available. Detection
disabled. This
setting will disable the auto-detection (& enabling)
of a mouse wheel. Select this option if your mouse doesn’t have a
mouse wheel or you want the mouse wheel disabled for some reason. Look
for wheel. This
setting allows Windows 2000/XP to detect if your mouse has a mouse
wheel on it. If detected the mouse wheel will be enabled, if not
it will be disabled. Not all mice support this feature however.
If your mouse features a mouse wheel & is not detected (enabled)
when you select this option then set it to Assume wheel is present. Assume wheel is
present. This setting will automatically enable the mouse
wheel – skipping auto-detection of the wheel. If you have a mouse
wheel then I’d recommend selecting this option, or if you selected Look
for wheel & Windows 2000/XP fails to detect your mouse wheel. Input
buffer length. This
sets the amount of packets for the input buffer, which stores data
regarding mouse location. If you find your mouse to be behaving
strangely you should try increasing the value. Otherwise you
should ignore this setting, leaving it at the minimum value of 100. Fast
Initialization. Ticking
this setting will enable fast initialisation, which will reduce
the startup time for Windows 2000/XP. If you encounter problems with
your mouse when this is Ticked then try leaving this setting Unticked,
although Startup time may be increased a little.
Settings
– Windows 9x/Millennium Edition
Unlike
Windows 2000, Windows 9x/Me does not give you control over the mouse
sample rate. A third party must be used to do this. I recommend you
download PS2Rate
Plus. This utility can be used to dynamically adjust the Sample Rate
for your Mouse.
This setting changes how
often Windows determines the position of your mouse.
Increasing this
value will make your Mouse more sensitive to any input, this can improve
responsiveness although may make more accurate movements more awkward,
& vice versa. Games
settings
Our Game Tweak Guides section can take you through configuring your Games for improve Mouse functionality & smoothness. These cover most popular games of all types, everything from Half-Life/Counter Strike to Tribes 2 & Combat Flight Simulator 2. These also contain further Troubleshooting tips in some cases. Conclusion
Hopefully by now your Mouse will be significantly smoother scrolling/tracking than it used to be & you know how to clean the rollers to keep input smooth too. Your Mouse setup should also be a lot more customized for the desktop/applications & games. If you have any Suggestions about this guide Email me, if you are experiencing problems with your Mouse check out our Everything Hardware Forum for help. |
