My make Mouse faster!!!

June 18, 2006 8:23 AM

I like my mouse fast. I recently switched from a run of the mill 1024x768 CRT to a 1920x1200 LCD, and during the switch the speed of my mouse has stayed the same, rather than changing proportionately with the larger resolution. I already had my mouse set to the quickest speed on the old smaller screen, and I can't make the slider go any higher. Do I have any other options? (I'm on WinXP, btw)
posted by northernsoul to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Just a guess, but maybe you could find some kind of fancy mouse with its own driver and speed controls and pump them up too.

(God, I hate it when people set my mouse speed fast like that.)
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:31 AM on June 18, 2006

I have a Logitech DiNovo Cordless Media Bluetooth Desktop (the mouse is an MX900), and its software comes with additional pointer speed controls. I have dual LCDs at 1280x1024 each; everyone hates how quick my mouse moves.
posted by glibhamdreck at 8:48 AM on June 18, 2006

Depending on your mouse you can also set the 'acceleration'. This is separate from overall mouse speed, but has a much larger effect. It's better to have a slow mouse speed but high acceleration as it means you can move around a large screen quickly, but still be ultra precise when moving slow.
posted by wackybrit at 10:12 AM on June 18, 2006

Personally, I'm twitchy like you but I hate mouse acceleration of the type that wackybrit mentions. I've switched to a laser-based mouse (not optical LED but laser) with a high dpi (1600 non-interpolated) and now other people cannot even use my machine because the cursor flies so quickly (and accurately).

I love my laser mouse and now cannot live without it. Get one but avoid the Logitechs and their hideous drivers.
posted by fake at 10:25 AM on June 18, 2006

Yep, a high-DPI mouse is definitely the way to go here. If you buy one of the fancier ones, you'll also get the added benefit of having a smoother mouse (500 or 1000 reports per second, the default is 125).

Some suggestions:
Razer Copperhead (this one has 2000 DPI and 1000 Hz polling)
Logitech G7 (wireless, 2000 DPI, 500 Hz)
Logitech G5 (2000 DPI, 500 Hz)
Logitech G3 (2000 DPI, 500 Hz, the shape is nice for lefties or people who think newer mice look like alien spaceships)

Also, you don't necessarily have to install the Logitech drivers, since like fake above me said, they're quite bloated and disgusting. I personally use the windows standard drivers with my MX518 and I'm perfectly happy with it. I can't reassign my mouse keys to some crazy macro or whatever but I wouldn't want to do that anyway.
posted by A Kingdom for a Donkey at 11:10 AM on June 18, 2006

MX518 here too, using standard Windows drivers. The mouse has a pair of buttons to control the DPI, the highest of which (1600DPI) makes it very zoomy even on my 4480px wide display.
posted by Freaky at 11:30 AM on June 18, 2006

You can try changing

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse\MouseSensitivity

in your registry to a higher number, then reboot(opening up the mouse control panel will probably change the numbe back).

Disclaimer: I tried it but the mouse was moving so fast that I couldn't tell if it changed, also, it may cause your computer to explode.
posted by hamhed at 11:34 AM on June 18, 2006

I second the Razer mouse.

But have you already ticked the "enhance pointer sensitivity" box? I find that speeds thing up some.
posted by krisjohn at 4:10 PM on June 18, 2006

If you have a bogstandard mouse (or an MS one), that doesn't require any special drivers, you can install the MS Intellimouse drivers (I've used them with a wide array of mice), which will give you some more tweakability options.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:02 PM on June 18, 2006

I love my Logitech mouse, I hate the stupid drivers they have. They just recently released a game-centric mouse that has on-the-fly (driver-independant) sensitivity adjustment... take a look into it!
posted by hatsix at 10:19 PM on June 18, 2006