Intellimouse-like Magnifier tools, for free
I recently purchased a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000, because I was so keen on the Intellimouse tools it comes with. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that this particular Microsoft mouse is not compatible with Intellimouse, because (according to this article) the bluetooth transceiver is not necessarily from Microsoft blah blah.
Bummer! Well, after searching far and wide I’ve finally put together the right combination of freeware tools that will give me the magnifier I miss so dearly.
X-Mouse Button Control
Magical Glass
Both utilities can be set to start with windows and they live in the system tray. X-Mouse Button Control allows you to set the 4th button to whatever you want, including specific key presses. In my case I set it to [{CTRL} {ALT} q] which is the Magical Glass shortcut to turn the magnifier on and off.
Under Magical Glass settings (right click the system tray icon), you can change the magnifier size and zoom level to your liking. I have found that setting the “Update frame” setting to 1 millisecond results in the smoothest refresh rates.
Many other magnifiers are available, but I have found that Magical Glass is the best utility for this purpose as it works similarly to the Intellimouse magnifier. It runs as an overlay, so you can still click on things under the magnified area. All shortcut keys are reassignable as well, which allows you to change the zoom/size/etc. on the fly.
Thanks so much for posting this! I had an Intellimouse a couple of years back and found the button to trigger the maginification invaluable during class facilitation. Your post was exactly what I needed.
Sincerely… Rick
Rick Stone
2012-05-27 at 07:05
Reblogged this on The Sorcerer Stone and commented:
During my hunt for a way to make my new favorite Logitech mouse work like my Microsoft Mouse did, I found this post!
magus75
2012-05-28 at 10:05