Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse could be better

I purchased a Microsoft Wheel mouse at Office Depot
for 13.95. My needs were to have a scroll wheel
to avoid the dreaded side bar. I thought for
sure that MS would be a quality product. I have used
them in the past, but those were the mechanical MS
Wheel mice.

So whats the difference between optically
and mechanically driven mice. A lot, a beam of light measures
movement under the mouse instead of the mechanical ball.
I found that this aspect is definitely better, although
it made the mouse feel somewhat lighter. Because of this
I noticed the usual overshoot until I got used to it.
No big problem because Microsoft provides some really
good software with the mouse. No problems installing
the software in my WIN98 computer.

The software lets you program the three buttons, left,
right and the wheel. You however can only assign one
function for the three buttons, no duplicates allowed.
The software also let you adjust the pointer speed, allows
for pointer options, lets you customize activities ( for
certain web pages) and lets use adjust the wheel scroll
faster or slower as well as the number of lines per
wheel click (1 to 3). I read that some people thought
it was useless, I think not because everyones hands
and dexterity are different. Thumbs up to MS for this
software. Also thumbs up for providing a PS2 adapter
enabling you to connect this USB mouse to a PS2 port.


First impressions - First the scroll wheel felt real
loose. Almost like you couldn't feel the clicks when
spinning. After some use, I just couldn't help thinking
that the wheel was going to stop working. The wheel
was whisper quiet, but its feel felt junky. The wheel
button also felt junky when depressed. I just couldn't
get used to this feel, the wheel button was very light
to the touch that when scrolling a web page it kept
activating while scrolling. This was a annoyance and
wasted time for me.

Now for the red LED light. At first I though it was
cool. But at night with the lighting more subdued it
became a annoyance. That glaring light begged for my
hand to cover it.

Another problem encountered was while trying to
compensate for that loose feel wheel, my hand
started to bother me, being conscious not to roll
the wheel hard for fear of activating the wheel button
unintentionally. I have med/large hands and the mouse
shape never felt right. This may have also led to
some hand discomfort.

I really didn't want to take it back but I did. The wheel
was loose and junky feeling, the wheel scroll button
activated when spinning the wheel.

I purchased a Belkin mouse at Office Depot. First
I checked three different places. Most of the MS
mice had that same feel, Logictech definitely felt
better. But the Belkin felt just as good as the
Logitech ones, and at 10 bucks I bought it.

Hope this helps and whatever mouse you decide to buy
make sure that you are comfortable with all aspects
of the mouse. Some may like a loose feel some may
not, but let your hands decide. If it feels good then
it probably is good for you.