The settings that you see when you choose Control Panel --> Mouse will vary according to the manufacturer of your mouse. For example, the Logitech trackball displays a completely different Mouse Properties dialog box (see Figure 1) than does a Microsoft mouse because Logitech supplies its own mouse driver.
Figure 1: The Logitech trackball has these Control Panel settings.
No matter which pointing device you own, however, you're likely to find the following settings. They might be named slightly differently, but they should be there, nonetheless:
- Middle button function: You can specify what action is produced when you click the middle button on a three-button pointing device. Possibilities might include a double-click, cutting or copying, maximizing or minimizing the active window, or even running a program that you specify.
- Pointers: You can usually choose either a Windows XP pointer scheme or assign your own pointer symbols.
- Mouse trails: This feature adds a number of trailing pointers when you move your mouse. This is a very helpful trick when you're using a laptop because the mouse pointer is often hard to find on a laptop screen. Visually impaired PC owners might also find this helpful.
- Acceleration: If you enable acceleration, your mouse pointer moves faster the farther you move it. This is a good idea for those running their desktops at a whopping 1,600 x 1,200 resolution, where the mouse can seem to take forever to get anywhere!
