Since the day when I started using Mac back in 2004, I have been struggling with the mouse acceleration problem. It’s not exactly a problem, but more like a feature included in Mac OSX to allow the mouse pointer to change speed over time while you are moving the mouse across the screen, the reason why I still cannot get used to it, is that I find it very difficult to control the mouse, especially when highlighting texts, placing cursor in between texts or trying to click on an icon or button. One thing I don’t agree with Apple is that, they should allow people to enable or disable mouse acceleration.
According to many people, its a matter of getting use to it, but I do not agree. I have tried for many years, but still prefer the constant curve on the mouse. For the past few years, I have been researching online, and even asked my Mac user friend, but to no solution. Some of the software I tried, including iMouseFix, SteerMouse, USB Overdrive, ControllerMate are of no help at all, if yes probably just improve a bit only, but still not good enough for me.
Yesterday, while I was doing my usual shopping and looking for a desktop+notebook mouse, and by chance, I saw this new Microsoft Arc Mouse. It’s a mouse designed for both desktop computers and notebook, one unique feature about this mouse is that it can be folded to 60% of its fully expanded size while you’re on the go, so its pretty convenient and save space. And when its folded, the mouse will be in off mode, which can help to conserve battery, so its pretty eco-friendly. According to Microsoft specs, the battery can even last for more than 6+ months.
So in the end, I decided to give it a try and purchase it on the spot, it’s a little pricey, costing SGD 70, but I really like the design and hope that it can at least help to ease the pain on my hands while using the laptop for a long period of time. And to my surprised, after plugging in and installing the Microsoft IntelliPoint 7.1 software for Mac, I realized that the mouse acceleration on my Mac is completely gone too!, it’s not something that I expect at all (especially after so many years), because I have tried the IntelliPoint software (older version) last time with another Microsoft Optical Mouse, but with no help. I really think that its worth the time and money for me, and one thing for sure, I love my Mac even more now, and will certainly be more productive while using a Mac than ever before. This time round, Microsoft has done something helpful, and hopefully one day, Apple can consider adding in the Mouse Acceleration setting for its users.
More Information:
Microsoft Arc Mouse
Mac OSX Mouse Acceleration Petition
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Apple, Gadgets & Tech
>they should allow people to enable or disable mouse acceleration
They do! You can have non-accelerated movement in OS X if you move the tracking speed slider of mouse settings to the leftmost position.
Check my illustration:
http://www.imagocentre.com/images/57/Mac_family_of_curves_71.png
The downside is a very slow movement, but you can adjust that with MouseZoom (I think) or with hardware buttons like on Logitech G5 or MX518.
>ControllerMate
It’s awesome actually, just not so user-friendly as USB Overdrive or SteerMouse, and was designed for other needs. ControllerMate overrides mouse handling completely.
Hi Dae,
Thanks for sharing. I have tried all the suggestions you mentioned before, but still its not good enough for me. I thought Apple could just included a simple menu to enable or disable mouse acceleration. For now, I think its still better for me to stick to the Microsoft mouse and IntelliPoint software.
This blog is right, it is the only true solution to fixing the osx acceleration curve to respond like windows.Here is my story on how I finally managed to fix the issue.
When trying to explain the issue regarding the osx acceleration curve many people are quick to suggest products like usb overdrive or steermouse – these products DO NOT change the OSX acceleration curve, they only provide speed settings. Anybody who suggests these products does not truly understand the issue.
So for about 3 years I used a mac pro or an imac and I always had a problem with the mouse. Every now and then I would check to see if any new websites had discovered a solution. Most recently I tried a program called controller mate. The nice thing about controller mate is that it lets you draw your own acceleration curves. If you have some patience you can essential create a curve identical to windows an fix your problem. Personally I could never get the curve to feel quite right so I kept looking for a solution.
I found this website a couple days ago. I already use a cheap microsoft optical mouse and had already tried the intellipoint drivers as suggested but they never seemed to work (I had tried version 6 prior to this posting and I discovered version 7 recently) I thought the issue might be with my current cheapo mouse so I went out and picked up the Arc to try it. It still didn’t work right for some reason..in fact it seemed to make things worse! I kept switching the mouse settings from system controlled to intellipoint controlled and I couldn’t really feel any difference at all! At this point I opened up my “about this mac” preferences and looked at my usb ports. I noticed some of them say USB port and some of them say “high speed” USB port. I really don’t know how much difference this means, if any, to controlling the mouse but I plugged my mouse into one of these “high speed” ports (which happened to be the usb port on the keyboard, as opposed to the usb on the back of the imac which i had always used). I may have restarted the imac a few times to. Anyway, I’m not really sure what did it but at this moment everything started to work. I even plugged my old cheap optical mouse into the port and it worked too! I then plugged the mouse back into the back of the imac instead of the keyboard and it still worked!
Not sure why everything started to work all of a sudden..maybe the microsoft driver didn’t start properly until I switched usb ports? Maybe it was the new intellipoint driver version? Who knows.
Hi. Thanks for the perfect tip. You saved me! I bought it today and the mouse behaviour is now ALMOST like in Windows. BUT – my mouse has different feeling when clicking on each button – is this normal or I have bad one? Left button is softer and it sounds deeper than right button. Right button seems better and faster. What about yours one? Thanks. Peter
Hi theslientman,
I’m glad that the Arc mouse solved your problem too. As for the button clicking difference, don’t worry, mine also work this way. I guess its just a design by Microsoft.
I had high hopes for this solution, but it didn’t work for me. I got the MSFT Arc mouse and played around with USB ports and Intellipoint settings/restarts. The mouse behavior was still screwed up — nothing like the default Windows curve. Very frustrating.
Hi Mark,
Are you using Snow Leopard, and did you download the latest Intellipoint 7.1 software? If yes, I don’t see a reason why it won’t work.
Mark,
At first it didn’t work for me either, no idea why. I just made sure I was at the latest 7.1 intellipoint, switched around a usb ports etc and eventually it just popped into place. I went back to using the cheapo optical mouse since the Arc felt too heavy for me. It really feels like XP. I read somewhere on the net about osx not getting the right driver to kick in properly…this could be it. Not sure how to check driver status in osx but could very well be the issue.
this solution really does work though….well, when it works so keep trying!
James
The Intellipoint software should probably work with any Microsoft mouse. It worked with an old first generation Intellimouse Explorer I had laying around, it’s not perfect but it’s better than any other solution I’ve tried on a Mac. To find out if the mouse connected is driven by the Intellimouse software you can click the pointer icon in the top right corner and then click “Mouse info…”.
I certainly hope that this is going to work. I’ve bought the new mackbook pro 15” about a month ago. Coming from PC i am very happy with it, BUT as you other guys, I HATE THE MOUSE ACCELERATION – I cant work as fast as i am used to.
I have tried all the other solutions that are mentioned too, and for a while I actually thought that USB Overdrive fixed the problem – but after a few days of using windows 7 (Bootcamp – Autocad) I realized that I just forgot how a nice mouse without mouse acceleration feels – and how nice it is to work with.
Therefore i am yet again on the hunt for the right solution – and I will get this Arc mouse as fast as possible to try it out! :)
Unfortunately, the MS Arc mouse and ItelliPoint software does not fix the acceleration for me (MacBook pro – Snow Leopard) :( :( :( :( :(
The mouse feels exactly like before :(
Hi guys if your irritated by the mac mouse acceleration too, then please sign this Petition. We need this problem and apple need to know about our whishes
http://www.petitiononline.com/MacMAcc/petition.html
Thank you and let us hope ^
WOW, i just purchased this mouse, and installed the software/drivers. PERFECT. thanks
Hi,
Have you guys changed the settings in the intellimouse preferencespane ?
Have you all enabled “intellimouse pointer speed” and have you sped it up ?
I have tried with an old microsoft intellimouse and still doesn’t feel exaclty like windows XP :(
Yes, Apple really need to fix this. However, I can’t sign that petition as I don’t just simply want a button to turn off mouse acceleration altogether.
To give you a slightly different perspective, I am not trying to replicate Windows mouse behaviour as it’s been many, many years since I’ve used one. I simply never found the settings available from the Mac OS control panel satisfactory, and don’t really understand how so many people just put up with it. The solution that has worked for me is SteerMouse. James is wrong when he says it doesn’t allow control of the acceleration curve. It is exactly this control together with speed control that we need in OSX. I think having some acceleration is a good thing (especially with large monitors), but Apple’s curve makes movement so sluggish with slower movement.
The settings that are working really well for me with SteerMouse and a MightyMouse are:
tracking speed=1.1
sensitivity=125
A Microsoft mouse would respond differently so those settings probably wouldn’t work, but I think anyone should be able to find a suitable combination of those two parameters that will work well with any mouse.
Hello,
I’ve just received my Arc Mouse this morning.
And things get worse than before !
The Mac acceleration is still there even with “intellimouse pointer speed” enabled.
And there is a little inertia (maybe caused by the wireless) in the pointer movement that makes me crazy.
I’ve changed the USB port for a high speed one, no change.
If someone has an idea I’ll be great full, I’ve just spend 45€ for nothing :((((
Thank you
It’s a real bummer that this is the only fix for this. I don’t see myself spending money on a nice mouse when I already have a nice Logitech mouse. I tried installing Intellipoint 7.1 just to see if it would work with my Logitech, but it didn’t recognize it (not a surprise). I’ve tried Mousefix and USB Overdrive, but those didn’t do the trick either. This has to be the 1 thing that I really miss about using Windows XP, especially since it makes a HUGE difference when gaming.
Dae said: “The downside is a very slow movement, but you can adjust that with MouseZoom (I think) or with hardware buttons like on Logitech G5 or MX518.”
My MX518 only lets me choose from 3 different mouse speeds. Not sure if that is just me, or if it is the same for everyone else with the mouse as well. I’ll go ahead and try MouseZoom with putting tracking speed all the way down and see what happens, thanks!
MouseZoom seems to be doing more than any of the others did for me. Still definitely not like Windows, but better, which will do for now. Thanks again. =)
Since MouseZoom didn’t cut it (I decided I liked it without MouseZoom better anyway), I ended up getting the Microsoft Arc Mouse + Intellipoint 7.1.
Sadly, it didn’t work for me. I tried downloading Intellipoint, then plugging in the mouse, and that didn’t work. I changed USB ports and that didn’t work (by the way, I don’t think the Arc Mouse even uses high speed USB). Tried restarting multiple times (along with changing the USB port), that didn’t help. I tried uninstalling Intellipoint, then installing it again after I’d already had the mouse plugged in, as well as more restarts, and that didn’t help. Messing around with the settings in Intellipoint, or messing around with the setting on both the OS X mouse options and Intellipoint both didn’t help.
I have Snow Leopard (10.6.4) on a Macbook Pro.
As mentioned before I had the same issue with the ARC when it diddn’t seem to work. Somehow it just started working though. At first i re-installed, changed ports, etc. etc. In fact the problem was worse with teh ar mouse (felt like an additional lag due to the wireless).
So after all this messing around with the arc I popped in my old white optical intellimouse and it just worked somehow…just popped into place…
It doesnt feel EXACTLY like windows ,but its 95% close enough that someone as anal about it as me can easily live with it. It feels like the mouse display or mouse location isn’t refreshed on the screen as fast as it does in windows.
Yeah, I’m going to continue to try, but my hopes aren’t high since I did everything you did already pretty much, heh.
So I bought Arc mouse. The cursor seems to be floating behind the mouse, i.e. there is some noticeable lag, but it’s noticeable only on Mac
Sorry but Macs are ABSOLUTE SHIT when it comes to mouse handling.
Wow… I just bought the microsoft wireless notebook presenter mouse 8000 and when I installed the intellipoint 7.1, the speed of my cursor is SO SLOW!! It’s slow even with the system settings (well, both system and intellipoint are slow…) I tried for a log time to fix it but it’s still slow even when I boost the speed to the faster position. HELP!