Jeg har aldrig været fan af trackpads. Jeg ville finde en god mus til at sætte på min netbook, så jeg kunne slukke for pegefeltet og skrive i fred. Jeg har eksperimenteret med Microsoft -mus (er flertallet af en computermus "mus" eller "mus" eller hvad?), og dette er den første af en serie af artikler om jagten på den perfekte mus. Først^(First) besluttede jeg mig for at prøve Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse , som så ud til at være en god, kompakt ledsager til netbook'en og også en god universalmus til min stationære pc og Mac Mini . Levede det op til mine forventninger? Lad^(Let) os finde ud af det.

Åben sesam - Emballage og specifikationer

Lad mig starte med at sige, at jeg er meget kræsen med hensyn til input-enheder. For omkring 20 år siden blev jeg opereret for at fjerne en knoglespore på min højre pegefinger, og kirurgen fortalte mig, at jeg skulle gøre så lidt som muligt med den hånd, mens den helede. Jeg var en online narkoman allerede dengang, så jeg forsøgte tåbeligt at skrive med kun de to yderste fingre på den hånd, og for evigt efter at jeg har været nødt til at have en håndledsbøjle på, når jeg bruger en computer. Jeg har brugt meget tid gennem årene på at tjekke forskellige enheder (mus, trackball og endelig en Wacom Bamboo - tablet) på at finde en, jeg kunne bruge i lange perioder uden smerter. Så jeg var især interesseret i at se, om Wedge Touch Mouse ville være behagelig for mig at bruge.

Da netbook'en og min stationære pc ikke havde Bluetooth -funktion, fik jeg en Kinivo BTD-400 Bluetooth 4.0 USB-adapter . Denne lille enhed var alt, hvad jeg havde brug for for at komme i gang.

Jeg tilsluttede adapteren til netbook'en, og den blev genkendt med det samme. Opsætningen^(Setup) var enkel. Både Windows 8 på netbook'en og senere Windows 7 på den stationære pc downloadede og installerede driveren automatisk.

Så var det tid til at sætte op og prøve Wedge Touch Mouse . Her er en god unboxing-video, hvis du vil vide mere om, hvad du finder i emballagen.

Og her er Microsofts^(Microsoft) officielle side med detaljer, specifikationer og priser: Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse .

Bevægelse af Windows 8 med Microsoft Wedge Touch

Først tændte jeg for musen, et simpelt spørgsmål om at vende den om og trykke på tænd/sluk-knappen. Derefter, efter instruktionerne, holdt jeg knappen nede i et par sekunder. Da lysene på musen begyndte at blinke, gik jeg til Kontrolpanel^{(Control Panel)} og valgte Tilføj enheder og printere^{(Add Devices and Printers)} . Det tog kun et par sekunder for netbook'en at bemærke, at musen forsøgte at få dens opmærksomhed, og endnu et par sekunder for den at vise Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse som den enhed, der skulle tilføjes.

Jeg sagde, at det skulle gå videre. Derfra gik installationen meget glat, og pludselig var musen klar til brug.

En af de virkelig gode ting ved Wedge Touch Mouse er, at du kan glide fingrene hen over dens overflade for at fortælle den, at den skal rulle. Desværre fungerede dette ikke, som jeg troede det ville. Jeg troede, jeg kunne glide en finger til højre eller venstre for at rulle startskærmen^(Start) , men da jeg prøvede det, skete der ikke noget.

Den glatte topflade af musen kan trykkes ned som en almindelig museknap for at klikke til venstre eller højre, så jeg klikkede på Søg^(Search) - amuletten, valgte Indstillinger^(Settings) og søgte efter Mus^(Mouse) . Dette bragte panelet Brugervenlighed^{(Ease of Use)} frem , som ikke helt var det, jeg ledte efter.

Nederst i det vindue så jeg Mouse Properties , og det var der, jeg fandt de indstillinger, jeg ønskede. Selvom den dukkede op som en PS/2 -mus (laver de overhovedet dem mere?), blev indstillingerne anvendt på Wedge Touch Mouse .

Startvejledningen, der fulgte med musen, instruerede mig i at downloade Microsoft Device Center -softwaren for at få fuld kontrol over musen. Dette viste sig at være kontrolcentret for mus og tastatur^{(Mouse and Keyboard Control Center)} . Jeg havde været mindre end imponeret over dette på min Windows 7-computer, så i begyndelsen valgte jeg ikke at installere det på netbook'en, og jeg fandt ud af, at jeg var i stand til at konfigurere Wedge Touch Mouse , så den passede til mine præferencer uden den. Jeg kunne dog ikke få den til at rulle startskærmen^(Start) sidelæns, selvom en finger glider til højre på pegefeltet ruller helt fint på skærmen.

Men da Microsoft anbefaler at installere Mus- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} , installerede jeg det på trods af, at jeg havde betænkeligheder efter mine tidligere erfaringer med det. Bekymringerne viste sig at være korrekte, da det første, der skete, var, at jeg mistede forbindelsen til Wedge Touch Mouse . Det hjalp ikke at genstarte computeren og trykke på knappen Connect på musen, og det link, ^(Connect)Microsoft gav til fejlfinding, gav ikke Windows 8 specifikke forslag, så jeg var alene.

Jeg fjernede musen via Enhedshåndtering^{(Device Manager)} og fik Windows 8 til at søge efter den og geninstallere den. Derefter virkede det - men som jeg detaljerer i afsnittet om Windows 7 , var kun de mest rudimentære kommandoer tilgængelige, og jeg kunne slet ikke ændre accelerationen. Den eneste fordel, jeg fandt efter installationen, var, at jeg så kunne scrolle ordentligt hen over startskærmen .^(Start)

Det hele var mildest talt meget irriterende. Så vidt jeg er bekymret for, er Mus- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} spild af installationstid, i det mindste for Wedge Touch Mouse . Det har en flot grafisk grænseflade, men mangler langt fra at være lige så nyttig som det indbyggede musekonfigurationsværktøj i Windows 8 . Og når først Mus- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} var installeret, kunne jeg ikke længere finde de enkle konfigurationsvinduer, jeg havde brugt før. Og hvad værre var, trackpad-driveren forsvandt, hvilket efterlod mig ude af stand til at konfigurere pegefeltet, da jeg frakoblede musen. Det er klart^(Clearly) , at mine betænkeligheder ved at installere musen og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} var velbegrundede.

Eventyr i tilpasning (til alle computere)

Musen kom ikke med en midterste klik-knap, og der er ingen måde at efterligne den uden at opgive funktionen af ​​enten venstre- eller højreklik-knappen. Hvis du bruger denne knap meget, er det sandsynligvis ikke musen for dig. At trykke på både venstre og højre knap samtidig gjorde ingenting, hvilket er noget andet, der kan gøre musen mindre nyttig for nogle (f.eks. kræver nogle spil, at du trykker på begge knapper på samme tid, for at udføre visse handlinger).

På trods af irritationerne under installationen, da jeg havde styr på den, reagerede musen jævnt og gled let hen over mit skrivebord. At kunne scrolle med blot et blidt berøring af fingeren var en rigtig bonus, og at kunne "svirpe" for at få hurtig og kontinuerlig scrolling var fantastisk. Det virkede virkelig, som om det ville have været en ideel følgesvend til netbook'en, hvis mus og tastaturcentrets^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} irritationer ikke var kommet i vejen. Når musen er blevet parret med en computer, vises den automatisk, når computeren er tændt. Det er ikke nødvendigt at trykke på forbindelsesknappen igen.

Den eneste anden ulempe er, at det hurtigt blev tydeligt, at jeg er nødt til at bruge en håndledsstøtte, så min hånd forbliver i en mere behagelig stilling. Dette er måske ikke sandt for alle, så jeg nedgraderer ikke musen for det.

Bevægelse af Windows 7 med Microsoft Wedge Touch

Installationen af ​​Bluetooth -enheden og musen var stort set den samme på min stationære computer med Windows 7 . Her klikkede jeg på Kontrolpanel^{(Control Panel)} fra Startmenuen^{(Start Menu)} , derefter Hardware og lyd^{(Hardware and Sound)} , og derefter Tilføj en enhed^{(Add a Device)} .

Mens musen fungerede problemfrit, accelererede den ikke så hurtigt, som jeg ville have den til. Mus- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} var ingen hjælp. Jeg kunne ændre indstillingerne for dobbeltklikhastigheden, og jeg kunne ændre nogle app-specifikke indstillinger (noget jeg ikke behøvede at gøre, fordi alle de apps, jeg prøvede musen med, fungerede fint), men kunne ikke finde en måde at ændre accelerationen på .

Dobbeltklik på musen virkede med mellemrum på skrivebordet^(Desktop) og virkede slet ikke i proceslinjen^(Taskbar) . Det fungerede fint i applikationer som Google Chrome og Microsoft Word 2003 . Jeg prøvede at justere dobbeltklikhastigheden, men dette løste ikke problemet. Jeg ved ikke, om dette er et hardware- eller softwareproblem, men medmindre jeg kan få dette til at virke, vil musen kun være marginalt nyttig for mig på den stationære Windows 7 -computer.

Muser OS X Mountain Lion med Microsoft Wedge Touch

Mac Mini^{(Mac Mini)} kommer med Bluetooth , så ingen tilføjelsesenhed var nødvendig. Jeg gik til Systemindstillinger^{(System Preferences)} og klikkede på Mus^(Mouse) for at konfigurere det.

Så klikkede og holdt jeg tænd/sluk-knappen på Wedge Touch-musen^{(Wedge Touch Mouse)} nede for at fortælle den, at den skal oprette forbindelse til Mac'en^(Mac) . Dette tog omkring 20 sekunder.

Derefter gik jeg til Set Up Bluetooth Mouse for at konfigurere den efter min smag, og det var det! Der er ingen Mac -driver tilgængelig fra Microsoft , men Mac'en^(Mac) havde ikke brug for den.

Endnu en gang gled den let henover skrivebordet, rullede jævnt og klikkede og dobbeltklikkede fint. Faktisk fungerer den bedre end den billige mus, jeg havde brugt, som jeg aldrig kunne finde ordentlige Mac - drivere til.

Generelle noter og observationer

Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse var nem at bruge på alle tre operativsystemer . Installationen^{(Installation)} var hurtig og enkel, når den virkede. Muse- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} er ikke alt, det skal være, og det viste sig at være frustrerende, selvom jeg var i stand til at få musen til at virke til sidst.

Da jeg først tog Wedge Touch Mouse op, tænkte jeg, at den kunne vise sig at være for lille til at bruge komfortabelt, men det var ikke tilfældet. Jeg har mellemstore hænder og havde ingen problemer eller ubehag med at klikke eller scrolle, men på grund af mine vedvarende håndledsproblemer brugte jeg den med en gel-håndledsstøtte til at placere min hånd på et lidt højere niveau, hvor det var mere behageligt for mig. Jeg bad en med meget store hænder om at prøve det, og han rapporterede, at det var OK, men sandsynligvis ikke egnet til langtidsbrug af nogen, hvis hænder er større end gennemsnittet.

Jeg kunne godt lide det faktum, at du kan slukke for musen, når du ikke bruger den, for at spare på batteriet. Derudover, hvis du går i dvale, sover eller slukker din computer, vil musen mærke det og også slukke for sig selv (det kalder de "rygsæktilstand"^{("Backpack Mode")} ).

Du kan finde drivere og manualer her^(here) . Bemærk, at "produktvejledningen" ikke er en brugervejledning, men snarere garanti- og produktsikkerhedsvejledningen på flere sprog. Det kommer i æsken, så du har sandsynligvis ikke brug for endnu et eksemplar.

Dom

Jeg troede oprindeligt, at Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse med sin kompakte størrelse primært ville være til brug med netbook'en. Den er lille nok til at glide nemt ned i en computertaske, og at den slukker af sig selv, når computeren er slukket, er et klart plus. Men da jeg testede det på mine andre computere, fandt jeg ud af, at hvis du kan arbejde med den begrænsede tilpasning, der er mulig med deres mus og tastaturcenter^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} , kunne det meget vel være en desktops primære mus. Den lille størrelse var ikke en ulempe, og den lette berøring, der var nødvendig for alle dens funktioner, var en meget velkommen funktion. Installation og konfiguration var et snuptag på Mac , men ikke så meget på Microsoft-OS- systemerne, hvilket overraskede mig. Irritationerne medMus og tastaturcenter^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} var ikke nok til at forhindre mig i at få musen til at virke til sidst. Det formodes at virke på næsten enhver overflade, og det viste sig at være sandt. Jeg prøvede endda at skubbe den hen over toppen af ​​en gammel cigarkasse i træ, som jeg har på mit skrivebord til at opbevare flashdrev og andre småting i, og det fungerede fint. Til sidst vil jeg sige, at hvis du leder efter en kompakt mus, som du ikke behøver at ændre standardknapindstillingerne for, og dine hænder ikke er store, ville Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse være et godt valg. Men jeg anbefaler at købe det fra en butik, der giver dig mulighed for at returnere det, hvis muse- og tastaturcentret^{(Mouse and Keyboard Center)} viser sig at irritere dig lige så meget, som det gjorde mig, eller hvis musen bare er for lille til dine hænder.

The Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse Review - Is it Worth Buying?

I'vе never been a fan of trackpads. I wanted to find a good mouse to attach to mу netbook so I could turn off the trаckpad and type in peace. I've been experimenting with Mіcrosoft mice (is the plural of a computer mouѕe "mice" or "mouses" or what?) and this is the first of a sеries of articles about the quеst for the perfect mouse. First, I decided to try the Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse, which looked like it would be a good, compact companion for the netbook and also a good all purpose mouse for my desktop PC and Mac Mini. Did it live up to my expectations? Let's find out.

Open sesame - Packaging and specifications

Let me start out by saying that I'm very picky about input devices. About 20 years ago I had surgery to remove a bone spur on my right index finger, and the surgeon told me to do as little as possible with that hand while it healed. I was an online addict even then, so I foolishly tried to type with just the outer two fingers on that hand, and forever after I have had to wear a wrist brace when I use a computer. I've spent a lot of time over the years checking out various devices (mouse, trackball, and finally a Wacom Bamboo tablet) trying to find one I could use for long periods of time without pain. So I was especially interested to see if the Wedge Touch Mouse would be comfortable for me to use.

Since the netbook and my desktop PC did not have Bluetooth capability, I got a Kinivo BTD-400 Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter. This tiny device was all I needed to get started.

I plugged the adapter into the netbook and it was recognized immediately. Setup was simple. Both Windows 8 on the netbook, and later Windows 7 on the desktop PC, downloaded and installed the driver automatically.

Then it was time to set up and try out the Wedge Touch Mouse. Here's a good unboxing video, in case you want to learn more about what you will find inside its packaging.

And here is Microsoft's official page with details, specs and pricing: Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse.

Mousing Windows 8 with the Microsoft Wedge Touch

First I turned the mouse on, a simple matter of inverting it and pressing the power/connect button. Then, following the instructions, I held the button down for a few seconds. When the lights on the mouse started flashing, I went to Control Panel and chose Add Devices and Printers. It took only a few seconds for the netbook to notice that the mouse was trying to get its attention, and another few seconds for it to display Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse as the device to add.

I told it to go ahead. From there the installation went very smoothly and all of a sudden the mouse was ready to use.

One of the really nice things about the Wedge Touch Mouse is that you can slide your fingers across its surface to tell it to scroll. Unfortunately, this did not work the way I thought it would. I thought I could slide a finger to the right or left to scroll the Start screen, but when I tried that, nothing happened.

The smooth top surface of the mouse can be pressed down like a regular mouse button to click left or right, so I clicked the Search charm, chose Settings, and searched for Mouse. This brought up the Ease of Use panel, which wasn't quite what I was looking for.

At the bottom of that window I saw Mouse Properties, and that's where I found the settings I wanted. Even though it showed up as a PS/2 mouse (do they even make those any more?) the settings applied to the Wedge Touch Mouse.

The startup guide that came with the mouse instructed me to download the Microsoft Device Center software to get full control of the mouse. This turned out to be the Mouse and Keyboard Control Center. I had been less than impressed by this on my Windows 7 computer, so in the beginning I chose not to install it on the netbook and I found that I was able to configure the Wedge Touch Mouse to suit my preferences without it. I could not get it to scroll the Start screen sideways, though, even though sliding a finger to the right on the trackpad scrolls the screen just fine.

However, since Microsoft recommends installing the Mouse and Keyboard Center, I then installed it despite having misgivings after my previous experiences with it. The misgivings turned out to be correct, since the first thing that happened was that I lost the connection to the Wedge Touch Mouse. Restarting the computer and pressing the Connect button on the mouse did not help, and the link Microsoft provided for troubleshooting did not give Windows 8 specific suggestions, so I was on my own.

I removed the mouse via the Device Manager and had Windows 8 search for it and reinstall it. After that it worked—but as I detail in the section on Windows 7, only the most rudimentary commands were available and I could not change the acceleration at all. The only advantage I found after the installation was that I could then scroll across the Start screen properly.

This was all very annoying, to say the least. As far as I'm concerned, the Mouse and Keyboard Center is a waste of installation time, at least for the Wedge Touch Mouse. It has a nice graphic interface but falls way short of being as useful as the Windows 8 built-in mouse configuration tool. And once the Mouse and Keyboard Center was installed, I could no longer locate the simple configuration windows I'd used before. And what was worse, the trackpad driver vanished, leaving me unable to configure the trackpad when I disconnected the mouse. Clearly my misgivings about installing the Mouse and Keyboard Center were well founded.

Adventures in customization (for all computers)

The mouse did not come with a middle click button, and there is no way to emulate it without giving up the function of either the left or right click button. If you use this button extensively this is probably not the mouse for you. Pressing both left and right buttons together did nothing, which is something else that might make the mouse less useful for some (e.g. some games require you to press both buttons at the same time, in order to perform certain actions).

Despite the annoyances during installation, once I had control of it, the mouse was smoothly responsive and slid easily across my desk. Being able to scroll with just a gentle touch of the finger was a real bonus, and being able to "flick" to get rapid and continuous scrolling was great. It really seemed as though it would have been an ideal companion for the netbook, if the Mouse and Keyboard Center annoyances had not gotten in the way. Once the mouse has been paired with a computer, it shows up automatically when the computer is on. No need to press the connect button again.

The only other downside is that it was soon apparent that I have to use a wrist rest with it so that my hand stays in a more comfortable position. This may not be true for everyone, so I don't downgrade the mouse for that.

Mousing Windows 7 with the Microsoft Wedge Touch

The installation of the Bluetooth device and the mouse were pretty much the same on my desktop computer running Windows 7. Here I clicked Control Panel from the Start Menu, then Hardware and Sound, then Add a Device.

While the mouse worked smoothly, it didn't accelerate as fast as I wanted it to. The Mouse and Keyboard Center was no help. I could change the double-click speed settings, and I could change some app-specific settings (something I did not need to do because all the apps I tried the mouse with worked fine) but couldn't find a way to change the acceleration.

Double-clicking the mouse worked intermittently on the Desktop and did not work at all in the Taskbar. It did work fine in applications like Google Chrome and Microsoft Word 2003. I tried adjusting the double-click speed, but this didn't fix the problem. I don't know if this is a hardware or software problem, but unless I can get this to work, the mouse will be only marginally useful to me on the Windows 7 desktop computer.

Mousing OS X Mountain Lion with the Microsoft Wedge Touch

The Mac Mini comes with Bluetooth, so no add-on device was necessary. I went to System Preferences and clicked on Mouse to set it up.

Then I clicked and held down the power button on the Wedge Touch Mouse to tell it to connect to the Mac. This took about 20 seconds.

After that I went to Set Up Bluetooth Mouse to configure it to my liking, and that was that! There is no Mac driver available from Microsoft, but the Mac didn't need it.

Once again, it slid easily across the desk, scrolled smoothly and clicked and double clicked just fine. In fact, it works better than the inexpensive mouse I had been using, which I was never able to find proper Mac drivers for.

General notes and observations

The Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse was easy to use on all three operating systems. Installation was quick and simple, when it worked. The Mouse and Keyboard Center is not all it's supposed to be, and that proved frustrating even though I was able to get the mouse to work eventually.

When I first picked the Wedge Touch Mouse up, I thought it might turn out to be too small to use comfortably, but that was not the case. I have medium sized hands and had no trouble or discomfort with clicking or scrolling, but due to my ongoing wrist problems I used it with a gel wrist rest to put my hand at a slightly higher level where it was more comfortable for me. I asked someone with very large hands to try it out and he reported that it was OK, but probably not suited for long term use by someone whose hands are larger than average.

I liked the fact that you can turn the mouse off when you're not using it to conserve battery power. In addition, if you hibernate, sleep, or turn your computer off, the mouse will sense that and turn itself off too (they call that "Backpack Mode").

You can find the drivers and manuals here. Note that the "product guide" is not a user manual, but rather the warranty and product-safety guide in multiple languages. That comes in the box, so you probably won't need another copy.

Verdict

I originally thought that the Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse, with its compact size, would be mainly for use with the netbook. It's small enough to slip easily into a computer bag and the fact that it turns itself off when the computer is turned off is a definite plus. However, as I tested it out on my other computers, I found that if you can work with the limited customization possible with their Mouse and Keyboard Center it could very well be a desktop's primary mouse. The small size was not a disadvantage and the light touch necessary for all its functions was a very welcome feature. Installation and configuration were a snap on the Mac but not so much on the Microsoft-OS systems, which surprised me. The annoyances with the Mouse and Keyboard Center were not enough to keep me from getting the mouse working eventually. It's supposed to work on nearly any surface, and that turned out to be true. I even tried sliding it across the top of an old wooden cigar box that I have on my desk to keep flash drives and other small items in, and it worked fine. In the end I'd say that, if you are looking for a compact mouse, for which you don't need to change the default button settings, and your hands are not huge, the Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse would be a good choice. But I do recommend buying it from a store that will allow you to return it if the Mouse and Keyboard Center turns out to annoy you as much as it did me or if the mouse is just too small for your hands.

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