Microsoft Optical Trackball

The main reason I wanted a trackball was because I am sitting here at a coffee table, the computer is sitting on top, I am sitting on the floor, and I gotta have a dry-erase board so support the mouse I had before (since it had to have a flat surface and all). This was very annoying! So, I made a decision that I wanted a trackball for my birthday.

This is an excellent product from what I can tell. Although, the only reason I got this mouse instead of another were the choices at Office Depot. I am not to fond of Microsoft Products. I was planning on getting a Logitech trackball since I am partial to Logitech products, but the only Logitech trackball's they had were wireless, and I didn't want a wireless. So, by the powers that be, I had to get the Microsoft mouse.

I bought it home, shut down Ed, took it out of the package, plugged it in via USB, and turned Ed back on, and examined the little ball that can come out and be put back in while I waited for Ed to boot back up. When he finally did, the mouse was not on. I could tell because with optical mice, there is this red light that it uses. The red light was not on. So, I installed the software, rebooted Ed when it asked me (never question Microsoft), when he finally rebooted for the second time the mouse still didn't work. So, I unplugged the trackball, and re-plugged it in. Thanks to Plug and Play, it finally saw it.

First using it was kind of awkward. After using a regular mouse all my life, this was a new thing. The most trouble I am having is you move the mouse, and you are trying to select something on the screen that is tiny, and you move the ball, and it jumps too far, then you move it back, and it jumps too far back. But I guess I will have to get used to this.

This is a very interesting mouse. It is black and it has 5 buttons. Left click, right click, the wheel button, and two more buttons one beside the left and right click button. You can set these to do different operations but I have them set to the default: Back and Forward. I almost never use these 2 extra buttons even though they are neat.

There is not much to the software, just normal properties software. Nothing to scream about.

If you are looking for a trackball, and you want a descent one, then go for this one. If you want one that I would trust, then go for a Logitech.