Microsoft Touch Mouse Review

posted by Stacie on February 6, 2012 // 88 Comments »

Microsoft Touch Mouse Review

I like gadgets, so when Microsoft sent me the Microsoft Touch Mouse for Windows 7 to try I was ecstatic. Woohoo…A new toy! The Microsoft Touch Mouse has the look and feel of a well made wireless mouse. It’s finished in sleek black with a smooth curved shape that fits the hand well. The construction feels solid; it doesn’t feel like it’s going to break with a little use. What makes the Touch Mouse different from other mice is that the top of the mouse is covered with a touch sensitive material that responds to different finger gestures. Cool! Let’s see if that was a good idea…. We hope that you enjoy this Microsoft Touch Mouse Review post.

Setting up the Touch Mouse couldn’t have been easier. You insert two batteries (included) into the mouse, turn it on, and then insert the USB micro-receiver into your computer. From there windows will take over and install the required drivers and software (note, you need to be connected to the Internet when you set up…windows is going to download software from the web). That was it. Pretty simple.

7 gestures for Windows 7
1. 360 scrolling
2. Forward/Back
3. Maximize/Minimize
4. Snap
5. Restore
6. Instant Viewer
7. Clear Desktop

After installation, a short tutorial will launch that will teach you the various Touch Mouse gestures. The Touch Mouse uses one, two, and three finger gestures in addition to thumb gestures. The tutorial will walk you through each gesture and allows you to try them out for yourself.

It’s as easy as one-two-three:
1. Scroll or pan in any direction or page up and down with the touch of just one finger or thumb
2. Simply slip two fingers left to right or up and down to dock, minimize, maximize, or restore a window
3. Slide three fingers to close all windows, show the desktop, or open task switcher

One finger gestures work on the application level. Moving your index finger up or down the top of the mouse will scroll pages (just like a scroll wheel). Swiping your index finger from side to side will pan across the open window. And finally, you can swipe your thumb from side to side to navigate forward or backward through things like slideshows and browser history.

Two finger gestures work on the Windows level. Swiping two fingers up or down will minimize or maximize the active window. Swiping two fingers to the left or right will engage Aero Snap, which automatically resizes your windows to occupy half of your screen real estate (really great feature if you ever work with two documents at once).

Three finger gestures work at the Windows level, but affect more than just the active window. A three finger swipe up will display a preview of all currently open applications, allowing you to select the screen that you are searching for. A three finger swipe down will minimize all windows and display the desktop.

I found that the Microsoft Touch Mouse made my interaction with the Windows 7 environment easy. Navigation and management of my various open applications was fast; much faster than what I can accomplish with my computers touchpad. The gestures were really pretty intuitive and simple…there really wasn’t much of a learning curve at all. In addition, I really liked that the Microsoft Touch Mouse supported things like application specific mapping.

There were a couple of things that I did not like about the Touch Mouse. The thumb gesture did not feel natural to me. Because of this I really didn’t use this feature; it just felt awkward. As a sometimes gamer, I also missed not having a middle button, and as far as I could tell there was no way to emulate that button with the mouse.

The Microsoft Touch Mouse retails for an MSRP of $79, which seems a little steep….but….a quick search online will find you better deals…as of this writing I’m seeing several sites with the Touch Mouse on sale at $49. However at any price, it is most certainly worth it. We hope that you enjoyed this Microsoft Touch Mouse Review post.

posted in Gadgets