A mouse tweak guide? Sure, why not? Nearly every PC user, everywhere, uses a mouse or trackball (or some other related pointing device) almost constantly while at their PC. So... why not tweak it? Tweaking your mouse might help you with games, surfing the web, and just about everything else. Optimize your mouse's ability to do what it's designed to do - point and click!
Mouse Control Panel
These first (and beginner) mouse tweaks are accessible via the Control Panel. If you're a total newbie, you're in luck, because I can understand this and will therefore make this guide extremely easy to understand and follow.
Begin by accessing the Start menu. Choose Settings, then Control Panel. Open the Mouse applet. These options are pretty much self explanatory. Set the right/left handed option according to your preference, and set the double-click speed to about half-way between Slow and Fast. Test the setting on the graphic to the right. Tweak the setting to your liking. If you prefer to have a non-standard pointer, adjust this under the Pointers tab. I leave my pointer on the default setting. Now, click the Motion tab on the top. Here you can adjust the mouse speed and enable pointer trails if you want. If you have a very small space to work with or you run your desktop at a high resolution, you may want to increase the mouse speed slightly. I keep mine at 1/2 notch above the middle and I set my desktop to 1280x1024. Most people dislike pointer trails because they distract from mouse accuracy and really get on some people's nerves (mine included). Hit OK and get ready for some more basic tweaks.
TweakUI Mouse Tweaks
TweakUI is one of my favorite programs because I like to have control over my system. To use the tweaks in this section, you will need TweakUI installed. TweakUI is on the Windows98 CD. If you can't find it, download it here. To install TweakUI, unzip the program to a temporary directory. Right click tweakui.inf and choose Install. Now, TweakUI can be accessed in the Control Panel (Start, Settings, Control Panel, TweakUI).
Open TweakUI and choose the Mouse tab at the top. You should be presented with this screen:
I highly recommend that you set the Menu Speed to Fast. Try the setting on the Test Icon and you'll see that setting this slower will only waste time.
Under Mouse Sensitivity, adjusting Double-click will let your clicks be closer or farther apart to count as a double click. The number indicates the number of pixels apart your clicks must be. You really need to test this setting to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I set this low, but someone who has a hard time holding the mouse steady might want to set it higher.
For Drag, you may want to set it a bit higher if your double click is high. This option sets the amount of pixels that an item must be dragged before the system recognizes it as a drag. Compare 1 and 32 if you don't understand. Keep in mind that if you set the drag low, you may accidently drag icons from time to time.
If the box isn't checked, you probably want to enable the "Use mouse wheel for scrolling" option This is extremely handy with almost any programs; especially while using the Internet. I set the scroll to 3 lines at a time. If you find that this is not very efficient (e.g. you end up moving the wheel a lot more than you think you should), set it to 5 or a little higher. Oh, and if you don't have a mouse with a wheel yet, make sure to buy one! Once you have a wheel, you will always be grateful because it does save time and effort, and can even be used for games.
"Activation follows mouse (X-Mouse)" is definitely a preference option. I personally loathe this, but some people find it's very handy. This option makes Windows automatically select whatever window/program your mouse is over without clicking. For example: you might have Internet Explorer and Notepad open. By moving your mouse over to Internet Explorer, it will automatically be selected. Once you're done here, click OK and you can move on to more advanced tweaks.
PS2 Rate
PS2 Rate is probably the single most popular mouse tweaking program to date. Recently, PS2 Rate Plus was released by the authors of the original mouse tweak. The program adjusts the mouse sampling rate of a PS/2 mouse and it has an area where you can test your settings to make sure your mouse rate is actually at what you set it to. When you increase the mouse sampling rate, the mouse cursor's position is refreshed on screen at a much higher rate than by default. This allows for much smoother operation. It's hard to explain how it works, but trust me.. it works wonders. Use this program for a week or two and play your favorite games and programs, then stop using it and you'll definitely be able to see the difference. At 200 Hz, my average mouse rate is around 120 Hz. It's a lot better than 40 Hz though!
You cannot use this program with serial mice and there is no need to adjust the mouse sampling rate with USB mice (because the rate is already much higher than others). If you have a PS/2 mouse (this connects with a small round connector to your PC), download the program here. The file size is 348 KB. Once you have downloaded the program, run the program and it will install the PS2 Rate Plus program to your hard drive. To run it, choose Start, Programs, PS2 Rate Adjuster Plus, then either Check or Adjust PS2 Rate. If you choose Adjust PS2 Rate, Choose OK at the first screen and it should pop-up the following menu:
Set the rate to 80Hz and try it out by clicking Set rate. Now try 100Hz. Then, try 200Hz. It should seem damn smooth. Play around with your mouse for a bit, then try choosing Win default at the bottom of the sampling rate dropbox. This is how things were before you tweaked it. Disgusting, isn't it!? Check the Make default box and set the rate to 100 or 200 (or whichever you prefer), then choose Set rate. Choose Yes to the question that pops up. Now hit Exit and try out some games... you should definitely see the difference. After you reboot, check out your rate using the Check PS2 Rate program and confirm that it's still using the high refresh rate. If it is, congratulations, you're done!
If you have a Logitech mouse with Mouseware 8.3 or later installed, you do not need to download PS2Rate. Open up Regedit (Start, run, regedit) and browse to the key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\Technical\]
Now, change the "PS2ReportRate" DWORD to equal either 40, 80, or 200. These are the refresh rates, as explained above. Note that 40 is default. Set it to 80 or 200 for smooth operation. Thanks Jason "FragMaker" Brockdorf for this info.
Mouse Pad
The mouse pad you're using - is it getting old and worn? Having a nice, shiny new mouse pad can make a big difference in games and general use of your PC. If you're just looking for a replacement, try out some different surfaces to get an idea of what you're looking for. I personally recommend slick surfaces as opposed to those fabric-cotton surfaces that have fibers that act as speed bumps to slow down your mouse. If you're looking for a seriously kick ass mouse pad, look no further than an Everglide pad. These mouse pads were designed for gaming and really do help by providing excellent grip and the perfect surface. They do cost a bit more than an average mouse pad, however, and they must be ordered online.
Read Tweak3D's review of the Everglide mouse pad here, or check out the Everglide site here for more info.
Now that your mouse is tweaked to the core and you've got a good mouse pad, you need to clean your mouse!
Cleaning a Dirty Mouse
There's almost nothing as frustrating as having a dirty mouse. Your cursor will move erratically and sometimes not at all. It's especially frustrating when you need to move your mouse in a hurry but it won't budge because of some scum on the ball. Cleaning a mouse is a necessity! It must be done almost every week. With some combinations of mouse/mouse pads, it has to be done every day even. Here's what I do to clean my mouse, which by the way is a Microsoft Intellimouse Pro:
First, I clean the mouse pad thoroughly. I have a shiny, slick mouse pad that builds up a black residue. This can be scraped off with just your finger nail. I don't use any cleaners on the mouse pad... I just scrape/rub whatever is stuck on the pad. If you have another type of mouse pad, try dusting or shaking off any dirt or debris. Cleaning the mouse pad makes cleaning the mouse worthwhile. If you don't clean the junk off your mouse pad, it will build up on the mouse immediately.
After cleaning the mouse pad, I proceed to clean the mouse. There are two methods to doing this. One requires a q-tip with isopropyl alcohol (70% is okay, but 91% is optimal), and the other requires any edge to srape off dirt. The first method is best, and therefore I recommend it over the second method, but if you're short on supplies, the second method will work. If you do use the q-tip/alcohol method, unplug your mouse before applying the q-tip. First I clean any dirt off the gliding surface (that allows the mouse to move smoothly over a surface) on the bottom side of the mouse with my fingernail or a dry towel. With this mouse, and most others, there is a removable cover on the bottom side. Remove the plate and the ball from inside. First you should clean the ball if it's at all dirty. I recommend using a dry cloth or towel and maybe even a little water. As long as you rub the grime off, it should clean it well without using any soap. Clean the plate cover using the same method.
Now that you've cleaned the ball, gliding surface, mouse pad, and plate cover, it's time to clean up what's inside. This is the best place to clean because it really makes a difference. If you look into your mouse, you should see two rollers (facing perpendicular to each other) and one small wheel that helps turn the ball smoothly. The rollers are turned by the ball: one roller controls the right-left movement, while the other controls the up-down movement. You already knew this though... right? Put your mouse under a light and look carefully at the rollers. Roll them with your fingers and you might see specs of dirt or that grey "stuff" that builds up on the rollers. Scrape what you can off with your finger nail or using the alcohol/q-tip. If you can't get it all off, use a knife or something with an edge to scrape what's left off the rollers. If you do use a blade of any type, make sure that you're scraping off dirt - not plastic from the rollers (If you used the q-tip, you can probably skip this part, as it will usually remove ALL the dirt very well). Move the rollers by hand in a light until you see no more dirt or anything else on either of the rollers. Follow the same process for the little wheel.
Conclusion
Now that you've tweaked your mouse, try it out. You should definitely see an improvement: especially if you weren't using PS2 Rate or the mouse was dirty. As always, if you have questions or comments, share them at the discussion board. Thanks for reading!
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Some part of this document is taken from www.tweak3d.net and www.pcguide.com.
