x-mouse. Wish I had known!

Jeff Horton

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I run a dual monitor system on my work computer. I often have 5+ windows open gathering data from different web sites. Working in Word and Excel at the same time, etc. Constantly finding myself typing in one window while I am think I am in another. I click on the data site to scroll down, move the mouse back to the Spread Sheet and start typing. Not thinking I just made the other window active. I kept wishing there was a simple way to make the window active that mouse was over.

Well there is! X-Mouse. It's a registry in Windows and I always hate to mess in the Registry. Keep Googleing and reading and discovered an old friend again. TweakUI, a Windows program (by MS) that allows you to make tweaks to the registry simply and safely. One of the options was X-mouse! Never noticed it before, probably because I didn't need it. In just a couple of minutes I have it installed and set the X-mouse control to on. Now when my cursor is on a window it is active. Gosh I love it!

OK, maybe I am the only one that can get excited about this, but this is going to save me so much annoyance! And I learned about it annoyances.org
 
Years ago I found that switch, but for me, it was more problem than help. I prefer having to click in the window I want. I often intentionally move the mouse cursor out of the window I'm typing in, so x-mouse was causing me problems, not preventing them. But that's just me and my work methods...it can be real handy for other people.
 
behavior studies when it comes to the way people work with their computers has always been a casual interest for me. Lots of people love their mice and dual monitors.

I'm anti-mouse most of the time, and I run everything maximized and just alt+tab my way to the program I want. I blame the "task switching" days of DOS 5.

As for dual monitors, when i DO use my mouse and because I'm always maximized, I rely a lot on the screen boundries. Closing windows is easy, just push the mouse all the way to the upper right and click. That's about all I mouse for most of the time, unless I'm surfing the web - then I do more clicking.

It's so much slower to mouse than to type for me. Taking my hand off the keyboard, grabbing the mouse, figuring out where the cursor currently is, moving it to where i want it, clicking, letting go of the mouse, relocating the home keys on the keyboard and typing is a whole heck of a lot slower than ctrl+alt+shift+e (a shortcut i setup and use for my browser). I blame this trait on my being a coder and spend most of my time typing weird combinations of characters that make no sense to the uninitiated. When I'm in a groove with coding, it's frustrating to have to pause for a mouse movement (an MM?). :p

Glad you found that tool, Jeff. Everyone should be comfortable with their systems and I'm glad the ability to customize exists :)
 
Totally understand what your two (Vaughn and Jason) are saying. I hate to go to someone else's computer because it don't work right! :) My neighbor has bad eye site and prefers a small (or is that larger??) resolution. I feel like I have a bill board in my face, so anytime I help her the first thing I have to do is to change the resolution. Then I go to use a keyboard shortcut and find that she has reprogrammed it to do something else. :rolleyes:

Just this past week she was having a problem with her network and I went over to see if I could find the problem. I always feel like a computer newbie when I sit down at her computer.

I could see how X-mouse could be annoying to some people. I caught myself shoving the mouse out of the way twice and wondering why I couldn't type. :) But after just a hour or so of using it I love it. Going to be perfect for me.
 
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