using the mouse on Windows 8

Question

okay I just gave it a shot, an hour or so... the interface is very obviously not appropriate at all for mice users... ie it's very unpleasant to use it with a mouse (the metro interface). As to using a touch screen on a desktop PC (vertical monitor), excuse me guys but I'll pass.

Answer 1

This really should be marked as a discussion item, rather than a question. 

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Answer 2

I agree with Phillipe's comment -- the lack of a mouse pointer makes the interface VERY difficult to use without a touchscreen interface. I have enabled the Control-key mouse locator in the Mouse control panel, but it is still painful. 

Answer 3

I'm confused, what do you mean by the lack of a mouse pointer?  My mouse pointer shows up fine in the Metro UI.

Answer 4

My mouse is invisible unless I come across a control on the screen...I can see the mouse-over highlight on the control, but no indication of the pointer in-between.

Answer 5

On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:13:28 +0000, KellerMaverick wrote:

My mouse is invisible unless I come across a control on the screen...I can see the mouse-over highlight on the control, but no indication of the pointer in-between.

Sounds like a driver issue, like KellerMaverick I always have a mouse
pointer on screen.

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Paul Adare
MVP - Identity Lifecycle Manager
http://www.identit.ca
If a train station is where the train stops, what is a work station?

Answer 6

On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:18:39 +0000, Paul Adare wrote:

like KellerMaverick

Sorry, meant JHoff80.

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Paul Adare
MVP - Identity Lifecycle Manager
http://www.identit.ca
It is now pitch dark.  If you proceed, you will likely fall into a pit.

Answer 7

It could be a driver issue...I'm using a cheap Logitech wireless keyboard / mouse combo.  I'll try an older wired mouse and see if the problem persists. Thanks.

Answer 8

yeah to be clear my mouse works just as expected on the metro UI, it's just that I really don't like it, it's not appropriate there at all. The metro UI is meant for touch screens, and like I said I'm not ready to use a touch screen on a desktop PC.

 

Answer 9

I think the mouse control is good but could be better.

Answer 10

don't know what MS intends to do in upcoming versions, beta RC etc... but the mouse is currently what you're using when no touch screen is available, i.e. the mouse is an emergency tool in Metro, not something that anyone will feel like using in a permanent way. So we'll either all have to acquire touch screen monitors, or acquire tablets... or some genius guy will come up with a new kind of device that you can use to control that Metro UI properly when you don't have a touch screen or don't want to have one.

Answer 11

Have any one tried Windows 8 with Microsoft Touch Mouse? I wonder what would happen when one uses those finger gestures on Windows 8.

Answer 12

just on a side note here, laptops touch pads are hardly usable on Metro :))

Answer 13

I have two VMs and a traditional (bare-metal) WDP install running and I have no such issues with any of the three installations.  The two VMs (one x32 and one x64) are installed in the current version of VirtualBox (4.1.3) running on 7 x64+SP1; the bare-metal install is on a separate hard drive of the same host PC (like 7, it's also x64).  I have no touch devices anywhere (standard keyboard and mouse - the only convention they *violate* is that neither is wired).  I am, in fact, entering this from the x32 VM (but may follow up from the x64 VM or the bare-metal install).

 

WDP bare-metal:

ASUS P5G41-M LX2/GB

Intel Celeron DC E3400

3 GB DDR2-800 SDRAM

Visiontek HD5450 512 MB GRDDR3 PCIe GPU

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer low-profile PCI

Logitech Communicate STX webcam

WDAC5000 Caviar Eco-Green 500 GB SATA 3.0g HDD (7)

Maxtor 6LS200 200 GB SATA-150 HDD (WDP)

Common application suite - Microsoft Office 2010 ProfessionalPlus x64 with SP1 applied via WU (both 7 and WDP used WU to apply SP1

Application breakage - none

 

Answer 14

I installed this on my desktop, an x64 system with a 25" 1920x1080 display, keyboard and mouse.

 

There are definite issues with mouse/keyboard control in Metro apps.  The start menu/charm thing in the lower left is okay, if obviously very different from expected.  Right-clicking to get the swipe up/down effect was also unexpected, but seems to work okay, most of the time.  Particularly in MetroIE, if the website tries to capture right-click events(like those trying to prevent you from saving images or viewing source), you can lose the ability to get to the address bar or tabs, or even close the page.

The biggest problem for, though, was scrolling.  Not being able to drag the start area around with the mouse(like you can with touch) was very unexpected.  Going down to the scroll bar feels very 'second class citizen'.  I eventually found I could scroll it with the scroll wheel on the mouse, which was nice... until I found that that effect is ONLY on the start menu... none of the other sample grid-based apps (News Feed, for example) reacts this way.  For those, you have to drag the scroll bar, which is asinine.

The keynote and follow-on talks make a lot of having a 'new language for touch' which is all good; changing the language for keyboard/mouse, though, is nothing but confusing.

Answer 15

@Alkiera same feeling here, that's why I said in one of my previous posts here that the mouse in metro was an emergency tool.

Answer 16

Using a mouse with the Metro UI is certainly not convenient. The cursor has to travel larger distances across the screen. The background should scroll with dragged with the mouse, one shouldn't have to use scroll bars to scroll.