V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

Q: A NEW TRACKPAD DRIVER IS OUT

I've got a good news for Macbook Pro / Air owners: a new multitouch trackpad driver for Windows 7 is out.

This driver (codenamed 'Trackpad++') neither contains, nor modifies the original Apple code.
However, it relies on Apple drivers stack for raw hardware access, that's why Boot Camp 3.1 shall be installed first.

Features of the Trackpad++ driver (vs. Boot Camp 3.1 driver):

1. Improved pointer ballistics (pointer movement can be very slow or very fast, depending on the finger speed);

2. Dramatically improved two-finger scrolling experience: Mac OS X-similar (accelerated) scrolling model implemented;

3. Elimination of the most annoying Windows issue of Apple Multitouch Trackpad, i.e. false detection of drag'n'drop actions;

4. Trackpad++ Control Module for adjusting the Trackpad settings.

Supported Macbook Pro generations: Early 2008, Late 2008, Early 2009, Mid 2009;
Supported Macbook Air generations: all generations;
Supported Windows versions: Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit (Boot Camp 3.1 shall be installed first).

You may visit http://trackpad.powerplan7.com for details.

Just by the way: there was an extensive beta-testing phase, and a lot of volunteers have tried Trackpad++ already, so I can assure You that the driver is rock-stable.

P.S. I wrote this driver. My another project is Power Plan Assistant - a popular utility for Boot Camp-enabled Macbook Pro and Air notebooks.

Cheers, and enjoy Trackpad++, something Apple definitely have had to implement a while ago... but I know and You know - it never would...

Posted on May 21, 2010 1:05 AM

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Q: A NEW TRACKPAD DRIVER IS OUT

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  • by timelover,

    timelover timelover Sep 24, 2013 11:21 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 11:21 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Vlad, where can I download test mode remover for windows 7 x64?

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Sep 25, 2013 12:21 AM in response to timelover
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 25, 2013 12:21 AM in response to timelover

    @timelower: http://www.powerplan7.com/Windows 7 x64 SP1 Unsigned Drivers Fix.zip

     

    (Copy and paste ENTIRE line into browser address line if it doesn't open)

     

    Usage: unzip, copy BOTH OF THE FILES (the fix executable and its manifest) to C:\Program Files\PowerPlanAssistant, then run the fix from there and reboot.

     

    @(MBA Haswell Users): Just wanted to put a short update regarding the new zoom gesture. Since the new MBPs can become available any day (e.g. did you notice how almost silently the iMacs have been updated yesterday!), I will release the zoom gesture together with Late-2013 MBP/rMBP support. Maybe this will even be a separate branch of the Trackpad++ project with  a different installer. But at first I have to determine if the Late-2013 MBP gets the same trackpad as found in Mid-2013 MBA.

  • by rtheb,

    rtheb rtheb Sep 25, 2013 1:18 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (140 points)
    Sep 25, 2013 1:18 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Vlad

     

    Just installed the new  Windows_8_81_x64_Test_Mode_Remover amd happy to report it worked like a charm.on Windows 8.1 x64 RTM.

     

    Thanks fpr resolving this as the General Release of Windows 8.1 is just a few weeks away.

     

    rtheb

  • by TOMillr,

    TOMillr TOMillr Sep 27, 2013 3:50 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2013 3:50 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Any news on possible support for Magic Trackpads?

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Sep 30, 2013 2:35 AM in response to TOMillr
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 30, 2013 2:35 AM in response to TOMillr

    @TOMillr: No news yet...

  • by pratnala,

    pratnala pratnala Oct 7, 2013 1:58 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 7, 2013 1:58 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Hey Vlad!

     

    Just discovered that in Google Chrome, if you go to chrome://flags, you can enable smooth scrolling. When I enabled this, scrolling with the keyboard was smooth but wasn't so with Trackpad++. Can Trackpad++ possibly be made compatible with this?

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Oct 9, 2013 11:52 PM in response to pratnala
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Oct 9, 2013 11:52 PM in response to pratnala

    @pratnala: Thanks for your note. By the way when the accelerated scrolling is disabled in Trackpad++, the scrolling should be the same as with keyboard. But when acceleration is enabled, the result will depend on each specific application. In Windows, there is no universal/standard approach for smooth scrolling. So, the question is not just about the trackpad driver settings, but about how each specific browser handles the scrolling events it receives from the driver. Of course, I can try to optimize Trackpad++ for Chrome specifically, but this can downgrade the scrolling experience in other applications. Anyways, I hope to rework scrolling in the future so that a user could tweak acceleration very finely, not just with a few presets like now.

  • by timelover,

    timelover timelover Oct 10, 2013 4:50 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 4:50 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    @vladf Hey vlad, the link you sent me with the unsigned drives is completely dead. Actually it redirects to a russian site.

     

    Any ideas?

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Oct 10, 2013 11:32 PM in response to timelover
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 11:32 PM in response to timelover

    @timelover: Not Russian, but Ukrainian . Actually, this is because the link got splitted after posting/emailing. Just copy the entire string to address field of the browser and go.

    The complete line is:

    http://www.powerplan7.com/Windows 7 x64 SP1 Unsigned Drivers Fix.zip

     

    or

     

    from US mirror:

    http://powerplan7-mirror-official.0usa.com/Windows 7 x64 SP1 Unsigned Drivers Fix.zip

     

    (it ends with word .zip, not with word Windows 7!)

  • by bschlack,

    bschlack bschlack Oct 14, 2013 4:36 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2013 4:36 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Hey Vlad,

     

    First of great piece of software and it makes working in Windows for me much more enjoyable.

     

    I see a lot of people here have been asking about removing the Test Mode watermark and I see you have a fix for that.

     

    My question is, however, is there a way to sign the driver for our own machines a la Windows Driver Kit? I tried playing around with it as I am not afraid of the cmd line, but I can't seem to find the inf file to go with the ppa_x64.sys.  My reason for this is that in Windows 8, it does not seem to run Windows 8 Metro Apps in Test Mode.  I would really love to be able to use both Windows 8 app and Power Plan Assistant and Trackpad++ together without Test Mode or with Test Mode and Apps enabled.

     

    Thanks Vlad or anyone who has an answer!

     

    bschlack

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Oct 16, 2013 5:22 AM in response to bschlack
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Oct 16, 2013 5:22 AM in response to bschlack

    @bschlack: The Trackpad++ driver is already signed in such way (a la Windows Driver Kit). The 64-bit OS will still tell you it's unsigned, though. To use such WDK style signing (that is, sign with developer's test certificate, not cross-signed by an authoriry approved by Microsoft), the fix is needed, and this is the fix which Power Plan Assistant uses (and the standalone fix we are talking about on those pages). Also, Windows 8 Metro apps definitely work, Windows 8 x64 support had actually been added to Trackpad++ a year ago. Anyways, thanks for your note.

     

    Cheers,

    Vladimir

  • by Martin Jovanovic,

    Martin Jovanovic Martin Jovanovic Oct 16, 2013 12:17 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2013 12:17 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Hey everyone! I want to share my experience.

     

    Trackpad++ works on my MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2012, with Windows 8.1 (not Preview, it's company's full version). 3-finger-drag works and it's fast. I checked immediate release checkbox and it works perfectly too. So I donated recommended 15E for PowerPlan and 15E for Trackpad++. It's a simple story: you get value, and you support the developer.

     

    However, there is one more thing.

     

    At first it didn't work, neither on Win 8 nor on Win 8.1 Preview. 3-finger drag just never wanted to work. But still I was planning to donate. Why? Because Apple is locking you in, they just don't want to build real Windows drivers for Macs. Macs work on Windows, but not fully. It's done in many subtle ways. I find it unfair... and as for the trackpad (a very imporant part of Apple laptops), Vladimir is THE ONLY guy out there who's opposing this Apple's behavior. Even if the app hadn't worked, I would have still donated. But then, out of the blue, after one reinstall, it started to work. So there you have it - one more satisfied customer.

  • by kthung,

    kthung kthung Oct 23, 2013 9:57 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 9:57 PM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Hey Vladimir,

    Thanks for your work, I'm on a late 2012 rMBP running Windows 8.1. I was frustrated at first because the driver doesn't QUITE work exactly the same as native OS X for scrolling, but after reading through some of these threads I have a better idea of how the code is supposed to work and scrolling seems to work better. The reason I was having some issues was because I've become accustomed to "intertial scrolling" on OS X (flick up on the trackpad and the page continues to scroll after your fingers lose contact with the trackpad) I was doing this at first and the page would only scroll up one line. Is there any way to implement this in future builds? Thanks!

    Ken

  • by V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r,

    V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Oct 24, 2013 3:26 AM in response to kthung
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 3:26 AM in response to kthung

    @kthung: Yes, I do hope to add such feature in the future.

     

    @ALL: If you got the brand new Late-2013 Retina MBP, please email me, as your (simple) help could really speed up supporting the new model.

     

    (Just to remind, Mid-2009 to Early-2013 MBP/rMBP and Late-2010 to Mid-2013 MBA are already supported with Trackpad++).

  • by shaipal,

    shaipal shaipal Oct 24, 2013 7:50 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 7:50 AM in response to V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r

    Hi Vlad,

     

    Can't get it to work on a mid 2013 MBA with windows 8.1 under virtual box. keeps asking me to re-install, and I tried both versions.

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