4 Free Ways to Tweak Your Mouse and Increase Productivity
Ever heard of tweaking your mouse? Just about everyone has a desktop and along with that a mouse to perform any task on the computer. We spend so much time using a mouse, but usually spend no time trying to make sure we are getting all the juice we can from that little controller!
However, you can greatly increase your productivity with a few simple mouse tweaks in Windows or via some third party apps. I’m going to go through a couple of apps that I’ve run across over the last few years that make my mouse into something more than just a roaming pointer!
How to Copy and Paste Faster
Most people don’t use their mouse for copying and pasting, it’s simply too much clicking. If you’re like me, you just highlight and then press CNTR + C and CNTR + P to copy and paste.
Not so with True X-Mouse Gizmo! This nifty little free program can help you copy with your mouse, paste with your mouse, focus on windows, etc without clicking, raise and lower windows, and lots more!
It has a tons of settings you can configure, but it’s not for the faint of heart! Just reading through the help page, it’s definitely a little technical. Give it a shot though!
How to Add Commands and Functionality to Right-Click Options
Everyone knows that when they right-click on something, it gives them a few menu options that are related to whatever they right-clicked on. You can add more functionality to your right-click by using a free program called ClickZap.
ClickZap will allow to run a specific action when you double right-click on your mouse. You can setup any action you like, such as shutting down the computer, muting the volume, lock your computer, minimize windows, etc. It also works when you triple right-click!
Navigate Back and Forward in Browser with your Mouse
Rocker is a cool free program that adds mouse rocker navigation to many popular windows programs, allowing you to, for example, navigate forwards and backwards in your web browser by “rocking” your fingers across the mouse keys. You can read more from the link on what “rocking” actually is!
All-In-One Gestures is a Firefox addon that allows you to draw on your browser window and perform a certain action on the drawn part. You can go back a page by drawing a line to the left and vice versa. You can draw actions for closing tabs, reloading a page, etc.
Tweak Your Mouse Scroll Wheel
This is not really an app, but I thought I’d throw it in anyway! Every time your scroll in Windows, the mouse scrolls 4 lines at a time. If you want to edit this value so it scrolls more or less, you can edit a key in the registry.
1. Click on the Start Button, click on Run, and type in regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Scroll to the bottom and edit WheelScrollLines. Set this to a lower value for a more sensitive scroll wheel and to a larger value for less sensitive.
4. Reboot.
That’s it for now! There are many other ways to tweak a mouse, so I’ll write another post on that later! Any other tips that you use that you would want to share? Post a comment! Enjoy!
However, you can greatly increase your productivity with a few simple mouse tweaks in Windows or via some third party apps. I’m going to go through a couple of apps that I’ve run across over the last few years that make my mouse into something more than just a roaming pointer!
How to Copy and Paste Faster
Most people don’t use their mouse for copying and pasting, it’s simply too much clicking. If you’re like me, you just highlight and then press CNTR + C and CNTR + P to copy and paste.
Not so with True X-Mouse Gizmo! This nifty little free program can help you copy with your mouse, paste with your mouse, focus on windows, etc without clicking, raise and lower windows, and lots more!
It has a tons of settings you can configure, but it’s not for the faint of heart! Just reading through the help page, it’s definitely a little technical. Give it a shot though!
How to Add Commands and Functionality to Right-Click Options
Everyone knows that when they right-click on something, it gives them a few menu options that are related to whatever they right-clicked on. You can add more functionality to your right-click by using a free program called ClickZap.
ClickZap will allow to run a specific action when you double right-click on your mouse. You can setup any action you like, such as shutting down the computer, muting the volume, lock your computer, minimize windows, etc. It also works when you triple right-click!
Navigate Back and Forward in Browser with your Mouse
Rocker is a cool free program that adds mouse rocker navigation to many popular windows programs, allowing you to, for example, navigate forwards and backwards in your web browser by “rocking” your fingers across the mouse keys. You can read more from the link on what “rocking” actually is!
All-In-One Gestures is a Firefox addon that allows you to draw on your browser window and perform a certain action on the drawn part. You can go back a page by drawing a line to the left and vice versa. You can draw actions for closing tabs, reloading a page, etc.
Tweak Your Mouse Scroll Wheel
This is not really an app, but I thought I’d throw it in anyway! Every time your scroll in Windows, the mouse scrolls 4 lines at a time. If you want to edit this value so it scrolls more or less, you can edit a key in the registry.
1. Click on the Start Button, click on Run, and type in regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Scroll to the bottom and edit WheelScrollLines. Set this to a lower value for a more sensitive scroll wheel and to a larger value for less sensitive.
4. Reboot.
That’s it for now! There are many other ways to tweak a mouse, so I’ll write another post on that later! Any other tips that you use that you would want to share? Post a comment! Enjoy!
