Gripes about Microsoft IntelliMouse

This gripe is based on reading the box, not using the product. Is that my fault or Microsoft's? You be the judge.

I purchased this mouse on the Microsoft web site, which by the way, is the only eCommerce web site that I've seen that is incapable of computing sales tax before placing the order. The site tells you there will be sales tax and that an email message will be sent to you with the amount of tax, after you provide your credit card number and the order is placed.

I purchased the mouse for someone running Windows 95. On the front of the box it says the mouse is designed for Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 98. Oops, no Windows 95. My heart sank. Not to mention those people running a server version of Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 who are also left out in the cold.

On the back, there are two sections with System Requirements. One section to use the IntelliMouse with the scroll wheel and another section to use it as a plan old ordinary two button mouse. The reason anyone, myself included, buys this particular mouse is for the scroll wheel. The back of the box says the scroll wheel will work with Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows NT3.51, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT4.

So what's the story with Windows 95? The mouse was not designed for Windows 95, but will work with scroll wheel functionality under it. What does designed for mean?

February 12, 2004: A reader of this site wrote to say that the scroll wheel is not supported on Windows 3.1.

Note too, that the back of the box does not make a distinction between the server and desktop versions of NT4 and Windows 2000, quite unlike the front of the box. It was designed for NT4 workstation (as per the front), but works under NT4 server according to the back.

The back of the box also says that scrolling with the wheel is available in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT4 based applications. Huh?

Windows 2000 Professional users must be screaming at this point. It was designed for Windows 2000 Professional (front), the scroll wheel is supported under Windows 2000 (back), but scrolling is not available for Windows 2000 based applications?

As for my Windows 95 concerns: this mouse is not designed for Windows 95, but the scroll wheel is supported under Windows 95 and scrolling is available in Windows 95 based applications. Should I care that the mouse was not designed for Windows 95? What are the implications? Beats me.

I'd rather take the SATs again than figure out what is supported and what is not under the server versions of NT4 and Windows 2000. The most unqualified person in the world could not make the verbiage on the outside of this box any more confusing.

To clear up the confusion, I checked out the Microsoft web site on this subject. It only added to the confusion.
See below (edited):

IntelliMouse
To use Microsoft IntelliMouse with the scroll wheel you need:
• One of the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows 98, Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later, or Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 operating systems
• 30 MB of available hard disk space

Service Packs? Nothing on the box said anything about service packs. What about Windows 2000? According to the web site, it is not supported. NT4 server is also not supported. Why is NT4 workstation listed twice?

The box says 29 meg of hard disk space vs. 30 on the web site. No big deal. However, 30 meg of disk space for a mouse driver seems like a lot to me.

The readme file says that you can only register the mouse with Microsoft at the time the software is installed. If you don't register then and want to register later, you have to re-install the software. When you do install the software, there is no indication that it is now or never for registering (it pays to read the readme files) and no indication how to bypass the registration process or even that you can bypass registering.

The readme file also indicated that there are times that you have to uninstall old mouse software, but I found it confusing. It also discussed the fact that sometimes Windows will find new hardware at the first boot after physically installing the mouse and sometimes it will not. I found it confusing as to which was the correct behavior. Not wanting to take any chances, I opted to remove the old mouse definition following instructions in the readme file. These instructions fail to warn you that after removing the mouse you can't click OK in Device Manager and can't click on the START button to re-boot the machine.

I was using the ZDNet updates web site for another purpose and ran across a new driver for this mouse. Before upgrading the mouse driver, I checked to see which version of the mouse driver was currently installed. It does not say. There are many tabs and options and much help for the mouse driver. But nowhere does it tell you which version of the mouse software you are currently running. The OS is Windows 95.

IntelliMouse phones home By Brian Livingston April 23, 2004 in his newsletter. Read also about Wheel and button problems in Windows XP and about how the Mouse and USB keyboard cause 1-hour bootup delay.