Kensington Trackball Mouse Review

Even though it states that the Kensington Mouse is not compatible with Vista, there is actually quite simple way of getting it to work properly.

Download MouseWorks 6.22 from Kensington and extract it onto your desktop. Now go to Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > double-click on Human Interface Devices and then click the link that appears underneath this. A box will open, click on "Driver Update". Now browse to where you extracted MouseWorks to and select it. Now if everything goes right, it should tell you that it is installing the software. Once that's done, reboot your computer and touch wood, your mouse should work perfectly okay, including all the buttons.

The above Instructions are for Windows Vista 32-Bit Operating System only. If you are using 64-bit Vista then the above instructions will not work. There are other programmes that can be used to map the buttons on the Kensington but I haven't used them myself. Vista has various options for making adjustments to your mouse. One of the include something called "click lock" this acts exactly the same as the drag function that you will be familiar with. Rather than programming a separate button, your left button can be used to operate the drag function by holding it down momentarily. At first I wasn't sure whether I would like it. But now I've been using it for a while, I really do like the way it works.

I started using the Kensington Expert Optical Trackball on a permanent basis in 2009 when I upgraded my computer and started using Vista rather than XP. Even though the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro is no longer available for sale, I thought I would include it in a review of two of Kensington Trackballs

This is the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro. I first purchased one of these in 2004 and ever since has been a huge fan of the Kensington range of trackball mice. The trackball has several buttons that can be each program to open a website of your choice. It also has four large buttons that can each be programmed to call various controls such as click, double-click, drag function, and right click. You can program the mouse to have these controls on any particular button you like. As far as I am aware this trackball is no longer available for purchase so if you have got one and are still using it on XP, I would look after it very carefully.

Unfortunately this product doesn't seem to be available anymore

This is the Kensington Expert Trackball Mouse. This is the successor to the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro. The expert trackball mouse is optical which means it uses light to sense the movement of the ball. The advantage of this type of mouse is that dirt will not inhibit its performance, unlike the expert mouse pro which used mechanical sensors, if any dirt found its way on to the sensors the mouse would not work properly. Whereas this mouse doesn't possess any launch buttons I find this doesn't really detract from its functionality. There is now a rotating ring around the ball that you can use to scroll up and down the page. The mouse is a slightly different shape and might take a little bit of getting used to. The build quality seems a little more superior than the expert pro trackball and I much prefer the look and colour of it. You must bear in mind that the software that comes with this mouse is not compatible with Vista or Windows 7. What this means is you will not be able to program any of the buttons. However there are mouse controls built into Vista and Windows 7 that enable you to program one of two buttons so that you can still use your drag function. These are still available for sale, for how long, who knows? You can purchase a Kensington Optical Expert Trackball Mouse from Amazon.co.uk