Side buttons on Microsoft mouse don't work

Question

Level 1

66 points

Side buttons on Microsoft mouse don't work

Just got a Microsoft Comfort Mouse 4500, the side buttons don't work (want to use them for forward and backwards while browsing).

The previous mouse stopped working with those buttons too, a while back (MS Laser 6000); both are wired.

I'm using a MS Natural KB 4000 if that matters.

Microsoft tech support told me I needed to contact Apple because "they don't understand the Mac OS" ⚠.

I updated the Intellipoint software to the latest, 8.2.

I don't think there's anything wrong physically with the mouse, I think it's some kind of software setting that needs to be tweaked.

Any suggestions?

P.S. If there is a better category for this question please let me know.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), 6GB RAM, 2x3GzDCIntXeon, 500GB ExHD

Posted on Oct 30, 2014 8:11 AM

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Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 10

80,352 points

Oct 30, 2014 8:56 AM in response to Oliver Lu

Welcome back!

As the "Older hardware" category is for pre-1998 Apple hardware and gets painfully few views, I'm asking the Hosts to move you to the Mac Pro forums. There is more of a chance of finding another MS mouse user there because it get more views. The old boxes this forum covers did not even have USB ports. Also, when newer Macs got USB, a lot of people struggled with MS input devices. Not as many reports lately so maybe something got better

In my experience, the most Mac-friendly mice are from Logitech. We have a lot of their mice on our menagerie of Macs and they have given awesome service.

Microsoft tech support told me I needed to contact Apple because "they don't understand the Mac OS"

IMHO, MS just kissed you off. It is their responsibility to make sure there hardware works with OS versions and hardware they say are compatible.

As a long shot, MS has very active forums for Office:Mac here:

Office for Mac

Even though it is Office-specific, there may be more users there with MS hardware attached to Macs. Also, unlike these forums, Mac-savvy MS employees contribute to those forums so you may luck out and get the help you need from them.

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Answer 2

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,180 points

Oct 30, 2014 7:58 PM in response to Oliver Lu

yup. welcome to the forum, Oliver. FWIW, I have a MS explorer touch mouse and it works just fine, and yes, tech support gave you the brush-off. Says on the box "works with Mac" and, as far as I know it does. Go into System Preferences, then click on " "microsoft mouse"* and adjust from there, I think you can even pick settings for different applications and Global settings as well

* actually, it says it's IntelliPoint, and has button assignments for the following buttons: left, right, Middle, top and bottom buttons.

apart from repairing permissions, maybe zapping PRAM, I don't know what else to suggest

sorry

John B

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Answer 3

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 30, 2014 11:35 PM in response to Johnb-one

Yes I've already played around with all the settings, nothing seems to make a difference (and recently repaired permissions).

Pressing the scroll wheel also has no effect, regardless of what keystroke it's set to.

I attached the mouse to my Windows 7 laptop and the side buttons worked perfectly, it's almost as if the signal doesn't get through on the Mac (I switched USB ports but it doesn't make a difference).

(I also updated the IntelliPoint software for the MS Natural Ergonomic 4000 KB and played around with the settings there, but nothing worked [iirc I lost the functionality of the side buttons a couple years ago either after switching to the keyboard or after an Apple Software Update]).

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Answer 4

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Nov 3, 2014 2:36 PM in response to Oliver Lu

Paid $20 for SteerMouse works as advertised problem solved thanks all.

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