Microsoft debuts new multitouch mouse for Windows 7

By Laura Khalil January 6, 2011

Born from the Mouse 2.0 project conducted by Microsoft Research and the Applied Sciences Group, the Touch Mouse allows user to click, flick, scroll and swipe.

“The new Touch Mouse is a great way for customers to interact naturally with their Windows 7-based PC,” said Mark Relph, senior director of the Windows Developer and Ecosystem Team at Microsoft. “We worked closely with the Microsoft Hardware team to help develop the multitouch gestures that make Windows 7 easier, simpler and more fun to use. After just a few minutes with this mouse you’ll see why.”

Touch Mouse lets users use one, two or three fingers to amplify the Windows 7 operating system by creating simple shortcuts to the tasks people want to do most.

With one finger user can manage individual documents or pages by flicking to scroll, as well as pan and tilt. One thumb lets users move back and forward through a Web browser.

Two fingers is designed to manage windows, maximize, minimize, snap and restore them. Finally, three fingers lets users navigate the entire desktop.

The Touch Mouse is equipped with BlueTrack Technology, letting consumers track on virtually any surface, and the tiny Nano transceiver is so small it never needs to come out of the USB port.

Touch Mouse will be available in June 2011 for the estimated retail price of $79.95 (U.S.). It will be available for presale starting this week at the online Microsoft Store, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. Microsoft backs this mouse with a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Laura is a tech reporter for Digital Trends, the editor of Dorkbyte and a science blogger for PBS. She's been named one of…

Computing

How to disable VBS in Windows 11 to improve gaming

Highlighting VBS is disabled in Windows 11.

Windows 11's Virtualization Based Security features have been shown to have some impact on gaming performance — even if it isn't drastic. While you will be putting your system more at risk, if you're looking to min-max your gaming PC's performance, you can always disable it. Just follow the steps below to disable VBS in a few quick clicks.

Plus, later in this guide, we discuss if disabling VBS is really worth it, what you'd be losing if you choose to disable it, and other options for boosting your PCs gaming performance that don't necessarily involve messing with VBS.

Computing

How to change mouse DPI on Windows and Mac

An individual using a gaming mouse.

You can change your mouse DPI, or its sensitivity, pretty quickly in both Windows and macOS -- and many top gaming mice can do it with a simple press of a button. This can be a great way to boost accuracy in some games, to make you more productive at work, or just to give you greater control and accuracy of your mouse pointer.

Whatever your reason, though, here's how to change your mouse DPI.

Computing

The most common Windows 11 problems and how to fix them

Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

With Windows 10 officially losing support next year, Windows 11 is poised to take over as the dominant operating system. Many users have already switched over to the latest Microsoft OS – and while it's not perfect, most are finding it to be a nice step forward from Windows 10. Of course, there are a few quirks people will have to get used to, but most of the bugs and technical issues have already been ironed out.

That's not to say Windows 11 is perfect. In fact, there are still a handful of common Windows 11 problems that people are encountering, including ones that cause no sound to play, network connections to be laggy, and games to run at less-than-optimal speeds. Thankfully, many of these issues are easy to resolve without extensive troubleshooting or the need to contact customer support.