Discussion on:

Discover the benefits of the Microsoft Touch Mouse in Windows 8

I have not tried this yet, but it seems like you can get the best of both the keyboard and mouse combo and the touch interface of Windows 8 from one device. Have you tried it - what do you think? Does Greg's experience inspire you to check out a Microsoft Touch Mouse for yourself?

How accurate is it, can it filter out noise (just moving your fingers naturally) vs a gesture.

Turning off gestures is always the first thing I do in browsers and any other app that supports it, I always end up accidentally doing one and wondering what happened to my page.

No, for two reasons.

One, I hate memorizing; always have. I'm not going to bother learning new gestures to get a new mouse to do the same things I already know how to do with my existing one.

Two, I'm too cheap to pay for a new mouse when the one I received with my computer still works to my satisfaction.

What new functionality does it provide in Desktop Applications as opposed to those with the new interface? What's it add in the traditional full screen Desktop?

PS Not trolling here, I'm intrigued by these mice and want to know what to look forward to when I move to Win8.

I bought the Logitech wireless Touchpad last year when I started with Windows 8 and was a little disappointed with the features and lack of gestures. The new updated drivers added some more functionality but not enough to recommend it to anyone. I had the opportunity to install Windows 8 on a friends machine and he bought the new touchpad T650 from Logitech with 13 gestures and it works flawlessly. I like the idea of incorporating the gestures in a mouse though. I have a HP Touchsmart tm2 convertible laptop with Windows 8 (since the first beta) and am used to gestures on the trackpad and touching the screen so am pretty comfortable with the touchpad.

I'm hoping someone will come out with an R/T pad that can act as a second display for a desktop system, either thru a display interface or some sort of application. It would become the menu display when installed. When remove the desktop would either revert to single display or perhaps be put into some sort of security state.

It's still debatable if the lessons learned from touchscreen UIs have any place on the desktop. Touchscreens are a necessary compromise for phones and tablets, somewhat questionable on laptops. But they failed already on the desktop, back in the late 70s and early 80s. Various approaches, including optical sensors, lightpens, etc. were tried, mostly in the CAD industry, pre-PC. They all failed for the simple reason that large motor activity delivers far worse repetitive stress injuries than the tiny motor issues, already enough of a problem with regular users of the mouse and keyboard. Not to mention that even in today's touch-crazed industry, it's still a really stupid idea to be smearing your greasy fingers over your viewing surface if you don't absolutely need to.

I applaud Microsoft for actually thinking about this one, at least a little. They've broken Windows 8 on the desktop in many ways for absolutely no good reason. This is at least a step toward addressing those shortcomings. Apple's doing it better still with their more evolutionary approach, making the existing laptop trackpads work better with multitouch, without breaking much of the previous user experience.

There is one big shortcoming of the Touch Mouse: it only has one button at the front, rather than two. It detects which button you "intended" to press by seeing which finger is in contact with the mouse. (In this respect it repeats the very same mistake of the Apple Magic mouse.)

Two problems: firstly, you can't rest both fingers on the front when clicking, like you can with a normal mouse. I like to keep both fingers resting lightly on the mouse all the time, and then simply pressing a bit harder with either the forefinger or middle finger for a left or right click. With this mouse you have to lift the other finger right off the mouse before clicking. Some people do that anyway, but if you don't, you'll end up losing most of your right mouse-clicks (which are interpreted as left clicks if both fingers are on the mouse).

Secondly, you can't do any "chording" gestures with the buttons, such as are used in the Opera browser and, via add-ons, most other browsers. By way of example: a super-slick way of going back through your web pages is to hold down the right mouse button, and then click repeatedly on the left button - each click takes you back one page. Reverse the gesture for going forwards. After a few moments of practice, it's an incredibly natural, easy and fast way to navigate. Just the lack of this one feature means the Touch Mouse is a dead duck for me.

Actually, there's a third, smaller shortcoming. When you click the mouse the whole front of the mouse dips (rather than just the button like in a normal mouse). Again this is like the Apple Magic mouse. This feels really weird and wrong. You can get used to it, but it's unnatural. Your muscle memory expects just the bit you press to travel down and click, not the whole thing.

If Microsoft were to release a Touch mouse with two separate, moving buttons I'd buy one like a shot. Until they do, it's an absolute non-starter.

The author talks about the Explorer and Wedge touch mice from Microsoft, as if they are somehow similar to the Microsoft Touch Mouse. They are not! All they support is touch-based scrolling. They do NOT have touch sensitivity across the whole of the top surface, so multi-finger gestures are not supported.

I am reluctant to pay for this mouse because I think it may be just as bad as touchpads are for laptops. I really hate them because unless you are very careful, those touchpads do all kinds of things you never intended. You have to keep your fingers well away from the touch surface which leads to a great deal of discomfort for me. Then you have to act with precision if you want to be sure of the correct response. No, I think that touchpads that do anything other than track the cursor are a very bad idea and I always disable those by using a plug-in mouse. I think the same problem will arise with the touch mouse. I can only imagine great agony as you work on your computer always straining to hold your fingers exactly the right distance and position from the mouse surface. I will be trying it eventually but I am far from optimistic that it has any real value other than "nice toy".

Actually the Touch Mouse was released for Windows 7, and it works well. It's only the use of a single button that I don't like, and that has nothing to do with the OS.