Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center - Slow response for App-specific shortcuts
- by Darrel Hoffman
So a few months ago, I bought a new MS mouse, and was surprised that they'd discontinued Intellipoint in favor of this Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center. It seems to have the same functionality underneath all the bloat, but there's a very serious drawback - when I set up application-specific functions for the extra buttons on the mouse, they work, but sometimes with a very long delay, like up to a minute or more.
For example, I often set up the left side button as an "Undo" in various programs for convenience. But sometimes, when I try to use that Undo button, nothing happens, so I'm forced to use the standard Ctrl-Z or whatever. But then, a minute or so later, it suddenly remembers that I hit that button a while back, and calls the Undo unexpectedly on something entirely different. It's infuriating. No modern computer function should be this slow. It's not the software or the computer itself, because doing an Undo via Ctrl-Z or the menu still works instantly. It's very definitely a side-effect of delayed response to the mouse button. Usually after it delays the first time, it'll work quickly after that, but if you haven't used a given shortcut in several minutes, it "forgets" again and you get another inexplicably long delay.
Intellipoint never had this problem, but it's not supported any more, and not compatible with the newer mice. Has anyone else noticed slow-downs with MS M&K C and app-specific shortcuts? Any ideas how to get around this? I use these shortcuts extensively in my workflow and it's just entirely unacceptable to have such a long delay in what should be a pretty basic feature.
