Microsoft Touch Mouse to be updated for Windows 8
Today marks an exciting day at Microsoft as the availability of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview was announced this morning in Barcelona. If you haven’t been following the news around Windows 8, we encourage you to check out the Windows Experience Blog today to get a complete look at what’s new with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and help you decide if downloading the Consumer Preview is right for you.
A lot of the buzz with Windows 8 has been around touch technology and how we’re changing the way you can interact with your PC. Touch is a first-class citizen in Windows 8, but so is the mouse and keyboard – it’s all about a no compromise approach. The tools we know and love today for interacting with our PCs, like mice and keyboards, remain important devices for getting tasks done quickly, powerfully, and comfortably. In fact, today we are announcing that the Microsoft Touch Mouse – the winner of Engadget’s “Peripheral of the Year” award – will be updated for Windows 8, as it’s an ideal tool for quickly navigating the new Windows 8-style UI where horizontal scrolling is a fundamental need. In the meantime, its sleek design and ergonomic shape combines the classic functionality of a traditional mouse with advanced touch gestures that make everyday tasks more fluid and intuitive.
We’ll have more updates to come on the Touch Mouse sometime around Windows 8 general availability, so stay tuned for details.
For those of you who decide to download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (or perhaps already have!) you may be wondering how to best work with your current Microsoft mouse and keyboard and the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Starting today, we’ve launched a new beta app for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview called Microsoft Device Center that will help you more easily customize your Microsoft mouse and keyboard to make the most of your computing experience. Available for download here, the Microsoft Device Center beta combines Microsoft’s existing mouse software (IntelliPoint) and keyboard software (IntelliType) into one simple solution. Remapping your mouse buttons or assigning keys on your keyboard to your favorite file or webpage is easier than ever in the Microsoft Device Center beta for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Stay tuned as we’ll have plenty more to share in the coming months!
- Hardware Team
Great to hear that! I’m using Touch Mouse and I can’t wait to grab one of your new keyboards too – maybe as a prize in a contest organized by Microsoft Hardware
3:29 pm Michał Szabłowski
Hi!
I’m currently using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview with a Microsoft Touch Mouse on my Desktop and have installed the new Microsoft Device Center.
While I think this is a good step in the right direction (thank you!) I’m a little bit disappointed that two features are missing, which I thought would be obvious to be supported by a touch mouse in Windows 8:
1. I really miss an option to invert the direction of scrolling in both vertical and horizontal direction. Using a touch mouse without a scroll-wheel feels quite unnatural, when the content on the screen moves in the opposite direction to the direction of the movement of your finger. In the age of touch screens we are just used to it to work the other way around an not like it did with outdated scroll-wheels.
Please add a little switch to change that behaviour.
2. Why can’t I use my touch mouse to swipe up the lock-screen?
Kind regards,
Sebastian
8:17 am Sebastian
Ok, Forget about point 2. It works, but just in the “wrong” direction. Please let us choose to change that behaviour. (See point 1.)
9:15 am Sebastian
Excellent news, can’t wait to try it out as I had actually just ordered one of these yesterday
5:06 pm EddiePRopane
By “update”, do you mean a software update for customers who already own the hardware? Or a new hardware release?
5:16 pm Rob Helm
You can invert wheel scroll direction by setting the registry key to 1:
Computer\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID\”Your device”\Device Parameters\FlipFlopWheel
You’ll need to reboot.
Tested on Windows 8 CP
6:22 pm Alexandro
The previous tweak doesn’t seem to work for the touch mouse, but works for other wheel scroll mice’s.
10:12 am Alexandro
After install Microsoft device center and restart windows the processes “System (it is NT kernel & System ) start using CPU 100%.
I didn’t know before CPU fan starting crazy.
I have search about it and find some people said the reason is driver.
So I uninstall and everything back to normal.
How can I contact Microsoft hardware.
devicecenter@microsoft.com don’t work.
3:56 pm Parnu Kasaemakaravipas
Hi Frodo – Sorry to hear that you’ve had some problems. You can send your comments and questions by clicking on the Send Feedback icon on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview desktop, select Apps then Microsoft Device Center from the options listed. You have to have Device Center installed. If this is a problem, check out the Contact Us page on our website to find out Support contact info for your region: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/support/contact-us
10:00 pm Hardware Team
I’d like to see a gesture to invoke Start Screen/ Desktop.
I’ve also noticed some “jitter” when moving.
also a high Dpi mouse would be nice. Moving across three 27-inch monitors with this mouse is a little slow.
3:40 am Jonathan Alligood
Thanks for the feedback, Jonathan! We’ll pass it along to the team.
7:11 pm Hardware Team
Ya learn something new evreyday. It’s true I guess!
7:33 pm Roseane
Hi!!!
I just downloaded the Win 8 preview and have had little trouble with it but I would like to Fuss about IE 10. I went to change the background picture in Google’s gmail sign in and it went crazy. It flickered and blinked and went fast doing it for a while until the screen said it shut me down to avoid computer damage.
I made a report but has anyone else had this problem?
7:07 am Cynthia Pecore
it’s not bad but there is a lot of buttons on the main screen and it’s not a quick access to the apps
8:40 pm Aziz Haddad
i have installed Win8 on my acer 5575series laptop. i notice that it sometimes hang my laptop and i need to restart. though not regular but it does occur. when i am in yahoo mail. it is weird that i sometimes cannot tick on the mail to delete, so i close the IE and log in again and it works..OVerall, it is a marvellous operating system.
10:06 am linus
nice
5:24 am shehraz
By “update”, do you mean a software update for customers who already own the hardware? Or a new hardware release?
2:31 am Con
Hey Con – Here is some info that should be helpful: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/windows-8-mice. You might also want to check out the Windows 8 Release Preview FAQ: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/faq.
12:12 am Hardware Team
We have delivered some of the wwdonis for the project, and are working to complete the rest. I have a great interest in how it was done back in the day , the arch top window that was set in the gable had a very interesting lamination for the jamb. Full length board was used, and the back of the jamb was cross cut nearly through it, it was bent to the arch and a strong-back was attached at multiple points to retain the form. We were able to salvage the arch jamb and cleaned up the charring, prime a coat of epoxy resin, re laminate the inner surface and stops, then encapsulate the components in epoxy resin and re-prime. The window jamb is now re-installed in the building. Bremik Construction is doing a great job putting it back together. We are in the process of building a new arch sash as it was, back in the day . Ray
11:46 am Mert