Last week I gave the MicroSoft BlueTooth Mouse a "Thumbs Down" review for use with my Sager 8890. This week, I'm downgrading that to a Do Not Buy Under Any Circumstances. Actually, read item (1) below - the warning should probably read: DO NOT BUY THE MS BLUETOOTH MOUSE IF YOU EVER WANT TO RUN A NON-MICROSOFT POINTING OR BLUETOOTH DEVICE ON YOUR MACHINE AGAIN. This specifically includes the built-in Bluetooth cards on 5780s and 8890s.

Why?

1) If you happen to install the MicroSoft Mouse and Bluetooth drivers for use with the MicroSoft Bluetooth dongle, you will never again be able to upgrade your Billionton Bluetooth Drivers at any point in the future. Why? Because the Billionton Drivers require you to uninstall all previous BT drivers prior to installing them, a quite reasonable requirement. But MicroSoft, in accordance with their Big Brother monopolistic ways, installs Bluetooth drivers with their mouse that cannot be uninstalled.

Neither can their Mouse drivers for that matter. To wit: I have uninstalled all Bluetooth and Pointing Device drivers of any kind whatsoever from my laptop, yet my MicroSoft Bluetooth mouse still functions perfectly with my 8890, inlcuding the default settings of all 6 button functions. However, I now cannot install any software, such as my Billionton Drivers, that requires the uninstallation of previous Bluetooth or Mouse drivers, as such unistallation has been made completely impossible by Microsoft.

This un-removable driver software from MicroSoft should serve as a stern warning to stay as far away from MS products as feasably possible.


2) The product does not function as advertised. They say "customizable" buttons. To me, that means what it did with Intellimouse 3.2, released back in 2000, or versions 4.2.1 or 5.0, both available today - you enter a keystroke, including an F-key or Ctrl-key, and the mouse will emulate that keystroke when you press the button. Intellimouse 4.9, required with the MS BT mouse, does not support this, and instead only supports a rather short drop-down list of keystrokes to choose from, which I would call "configurable" buttons, rather than "customizable".


Anyways, word of warning to anyone looking for a BT mouse to use with your Sager laptop out there - avoid the Microsoft product at all costs, and if you do happen to get it, crack the CD that comes with it in half before letting it near your machine. The drivers on it are poison, if you install them, you'll just need to reinstall your OS.


-phubar

and thats why i love my Logitech MX900

You may not consider then the same defonition, but the buttons ARE customizable.. you DO (by your own admission) have the ability to easily and sucessfully customize what the button does, according to what the software is capable of doing.


Either way, format, and get a logitech Mx900 anyway...

Oh man, it's hilarious when people screw things up and blame the hardware!

Yikes. As bad as that is, I am relieved that you found the problem. A quick, clean format will take care of the drivers and we all have a lesson learned.

Thanks for the update!

Latest News:

1) Reinstalling the OS is insufficient to remove the MS Bluetooth driver and allow reinstallation of the Billionton ones. A full reformat of the HD is required to clean up after installation of the Microsoft ugliness. The stain of the corruption from the Evil truly runs deep.

2) If you do happen to use a Microsoft mouse of some kind, and would like to have a driver that supports fully customizable button reprogramming on a per-application basis (i.e. different button customizations for different applications), one is available. If you go to the MS download site and download the driver for "Intellimouse Explorer 3.0" under "Windows 98", it supports this feature with an 'Application-Specific Customization' checkbox. None of the Windows 2000 / Windows XP mouse drivers from Microsoft support this feature for some reason.

3) The *only* driver that will allow any reconfiguration of the buttons on the MS BT Mouse is the 4.9 driver that ships with it, and requires the MS BT driver which permanently corrupts your OS. Which means that after playing with various setups all evening today, I am now back to using that driver until the Logitech MX900 I just ordered arrives, at which point I will have to reformat my HDs again, and then attempt to find a sucker on eBay to take the Microsoft Trojan Mouse off my hands.

One further complaint about the 4.9 driver is that the max movement speed of the mouse is unusually slow. I crank the mouse up to maximum speed, and it is still a notch and a half to two 'notches' slower than where I normally set the mouse to be moving under the 4.12 Microsoft drivers.


I could go on about my opinion of Microsoft and the actions I am pondering taking against them, but it would only start a flame war. If you're curious, PM me.

-phubar

ROTFL
Oh man, I am sorry to hear about your problems, but the "Microsoft Trojan Mouse" just cracked me up.

Thanks for the heads up on the Mouse from the House of Evil Redmond.

Just on a positive note about Bluetooth, due to some work I have been doing over the Christmas break (well for some people anyway), I have been stuck in a computer room upgrading Sun servers. Normally I have my trusty 8890 with me and usually can find a phone line to tap into so I can trade the markets whilst waiting for patch kits to install. This particular computer room has zip phone lines into it (something I will have to change). This meant having to use my Nokia 6310 mobile to act as a modem. After a bit of stuffing around with pairing the devices, I had a perfectly working BT connection between the 8890 and 6310 which then was dialling out (only at 9600 bps - beggars can't be choosers) to the internet via my backup ISP. Look ma, no wires. Beats these silly IR connections where if you move the phone it drops out. The Bluetooth module worked flawlessly, even if it took 30Mb of software to do so.

I'm running the Microsoft BT mouse right now and have been for 3 weeks. Zero problems at all. I am using the Billionton drivers and can upgrade all day long with no problems. I really don't think your problem was related to the MS Mouse...I hate to say it but it's more likely you installed a driver you didn't need to and that caused the problem.

Solution here is just don't install the MS bluetooth driver...I mean..why would you want to anyway..you aren't usuing their dongle after all...

I just put batteries in the mouse..scanned for it using the Billionton BT software and it's worked 100% great ever since...same goes for the MS BT keyboard..no problems at all on my 8790 so I'm assuming you wouldn't have any problems on the 5690 either.