I have a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0A. This model of mouse has not been in production for some years, although occasionally it comes up as a used item at extortionate prices. It measures five inches in length, is a simple two button mouse with scroll wheel. I like the size and the functionality.

After years of use, the scroll wheel is beginning to work erratically, and I cannot see any non-destructive way to disassemble/clean the mechanism.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a full-size (~5") wireless optical mouse? Rechargeable USB would be a bonus, but not required.

As a bonus, I offer my recipe for a pretty good mouse pad: create an Excel spreadsheet with columns A through FZ (that's 156 columns) by 240 rows. Column width 1. Row Height 10. Borders "Thick". This will print nicely on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and leave you with quarter inch margins. You'll want to laminate the printed sheet, other wise it won't last. Best mouse pad I ever had. Cheapest, too, unless you factor in a couple thousand dollars invested in the computer and monitor, the duplexing color laser printer, the laminating machine and materials.

tanstaafl.

I strongly recommend the Logitech MX Master/Revolution series of mice.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Master-Wireless-Mouse-Rechargeable/dp/B071YZJ1G1/

I've owned four of them over the years, all four are still in use, they just keep on running.

My wife is using one of the MX Revolutions, that I believe I bought around 2010. It is still on the original rechargeable battery and still works fine.

I love the shape of this range of mice (no good if you are left handed). And the unique scroll wheel with a software controlled clutch is just great.

With the clutch you can toggle between normal notched mode or extremely fast scrolling free wheel mode and the weighting on it is just amazing.

They aren't cheap though, but they do regularly show up with a 50% discount on Amazon.

If you get one, use it with the receiver that comes with it, not Bluetooth. I can always feel the latency on Bluetooth, can't feel it at all with the receiver.

Their current Mac software however has been a disaster for me. Keeps losing setting and losing the ability to assign buttons to the keystrokes I want.

I've had to give up on their Options+ software and use https://better-mouse.com instead.

Thankfully the Windows version doesn't appear to have the same issues.

Oh and you won't need a mouse pad, ever since I've owned these mice I've never used one, they track perfectly even on my featureless white Ikea desktop.

I was going to call you out on that one... but the Amazon reviews clearly show it functioning on a glass tabletop, something no mouse I've had could do. I wonder how they do that?

There are a lot of negative reviews, most of which seem to come from Mac users, mirroring your experience, but you say that Windows works better. There seem to be more problems than I expected with the scroll wheel, apparently the fancy normal/notched software controlled scrolling has given problems. I couldn't tell if this was primarily a Macintosh problem.

I have a very narrow window to avoid the $25 shipping charge to Mexico (someone to bring it down from California) so I'll give it a try.

Just remember -- if it doesn't work perfectly for me, it'll be all your fault and my revenge will be terrible and swift! I might even go to such extreme lengths as to send you an email about it.

tanstaafl.

ps: Thank you for the links. It it works as described it should be exactly what I want.

Right, time for me to shut the BBS down 😉

Indeed, the newer mice can work on almost any surface. The first one I saw was over a decade ago, it was called the Logitech "Darkfield" mouse and it was the first one I'd seen that advertised that it could work on a glass table. And it did. Most sensitive and accurate tracking I'd ever had in a mouse. I bought a few of them, but then, their primary click buttons got flaky. I repaired a couple of their buttons, but got sick of changing out double-A batteris in them. I've since gotten several other newer models of logitech mice (usb rechargeables) since then, and they have all worked fine for years.

I currently use a Logitech M325, a bit more compact than Doug is looking for. But it runs off of a single AA battery. For years. I think I did replace it once, but cannot remember how many years ago that was.

It is just staggering to me that the rechargeable battery in the one I bought sometime before 2010 is still working fine.

I used an MX Master for years before carpal tunnel made me move to an MX Vertical and then to an MX Ergo.

FWIW, I've also got a Logitech MX Keys, but it's not as nice as my K800. Unfortunately, the K800 isn't as robust as the mice; I went through three in the space of about 12 years.



I don't have that many spare USB ports, so I stick with BT. I've either never noticed the extra latency or it doesn't bother me.



I've not had that problem, but I don't tend to tweak the settings beyond the defaults. I think I had to rebind the History buttons to something specific so that I could persuade VS Code to honour it, though. Apparently, I've got those buttons mapped to camera/mic on/off in Zoom as well. I forgot that.



This looks interesting, though. Might try it out.



I use a mouse pad to keep my hand warm, mostly. Maybe I should just get one of those big desk warmer pads...

FWIW, I've been all about the trackpads for years. When you have a Mac desktop, you get a Magic Trackpad, and then everything "just works" and all the gestures do the right things.

For work, I now find myself using a Windows 10 laptop. With the laptop's own trackpad, everything works as expected, but when I plug it into my work desktop configuration (Thunderbolt hub with everything else attached), my new employer has Rules about what can and cannot be plugged in. Wired good. Wireless bad. 3rd-party drivers bad.

Turns out, there are two flavors of PC trackpads out there. The ones that internally process their multi-touch gestures and then tell the computer "scroll up" or whatever, and then the newer "Windows Precision Touchpad", which is some kind of standard which allows Windows itself to decode the multi-touch gestures.

Long story short: if you're looking for a USB, wired, Windows Precision Touchpad, your options are surprisingly limited. Most models use tap-to-click, which means that click-dragging is a kludgy double-tap operation. Nothing is half as cool as Apple's pressure-sensitive synthetic click design, nevermind the lovely glass top so it feels great.