Author Topic: DONE: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program (Read 96775 times)

mouser · « **Reply #25 on:** May 01, 2010, 02:27 PM »

One caveat that I haven't been able to figure out yet is that, when using a custom cursor, it is used for all cursor functions i.e. no resizing cursors, no I-beam, etc.

i was afraid of that. i think that makes this cursor changing feature not so useful.
it *might* still be a good idea if one instead could trigger a windows-cursor-theme change, to change entire sets of cursors.

otherwise i suggest that it would be more useful to use a different mechanism besides cursor change to indicate the change in acceleration, like background desktop color.

in fact, given that the goal is to toggle back and forth acceleration for high precision uses (like in a graphics program), it would seem to me highly likely that the graphics program is going to have its own custom cursors in use (like paintbrush cursor, etc.) so the whole cursor changing idea is not going to cut it.

nudone · « **Reply #26 on:** May 01, 2010, 02:35 PM »

in fact, given that the goal is to toggle back and forth acceleration for high precision uses (like in a graphics program), it would seem to me highly likely that the graphics program is going to have its own custom cursors in use (like paintbrush cursor, etc.) so the whole cursor changing idea is not going to cut it.
-mouser (May 01, 2010, 02:27 PM)

oh dear. i completely forgot about that. maybe a tray icon is the way to go - and desktop colour change (though that will be hidden a lot of the time).

at this rate it looks like i'll be sticking with my original (very basic) cursor slide method.

are there any other visual cues that would help?

mouser · « **Reply #27 on:** May 01, 2010, 02:53 PM »

i think the idea of toggling mouse acceleration is a great one.. i'm not really sure you NEED a visual indicator about it.. it's going to be pretty obvious. though i can imagine a separate idea for a docked bar on the screen showing various cursor related info (like acceleration, etc), color under cursor, etc. might be useful to some.

nudone · « **Reply #28 on:** May 01, 2010, 03:05 PM »

if the toggle could be made so that it only accelerated when a hotkey was held down then i wouldn't need a visual cue as to what mode the speed is in. i didn't ask if this could be included with MAT as i thought the visual cue would be simpler/easier to do. but, if i'm honest, the accelerate only when hotkey/button is down is the method i need. this is also how i'd expect a built in mouse acceleration to work - is this how a gaming mouse works?

as MAT works through switches that are either set or not - would it be possible to adapt it do the acceleration only when a hotkey is held down?

skwire · « **Reply #29 on:** May 01, 2010, 07:23 PM »

You can't do it directly with MAT, but you can easily with a couple of AHK hotkeys set up like this:

Code: AutoIt [Select]

~^!+LButton:: Run, C:\path\to\MouseAccelToggler.exe accel=on speed=20 cursor="C:\path\to\cursor.cur"
~^!+LButton Up:: Run, C:\path\to\MouseAccelToggler.exe accel=off speed=10 cursor="Default"

This will let you use ctrl-alt-shift-left mouse button down to do one thing and another when releasing it.

nudone · « **Reply #30 on:** May 01, 2010, 08:36 PM »

amazing. autohotkey to the rescue (and skwire) again.

i'll give this a try as soon as i'm back on the main pc.

skwire · « **Reply #31 on:** May 01, 2010, 09:26 PM »

Yeah...but I don't see how this will help you since you can't do much with the LMB held down, right? In other words, you may want to change the LMB to a key or something.

nudone · « **Reply #32 on:** May 02, 2010, 06:27 AM »

good point. i changed it to the middle mouse button, MButton, and this appears to works brilliantly.

(my middle mouse button is actually next to my thumb so i can still easily press the left/right buttons at the same time. meaning, i can drag windows about and other functions whilst in the temporary "fast" mouse mode.)

i do like the visual cue on the cursor too.

i think this "accelerate only when button held down" method works really, really, well. i know exactly how fast my mouse is going to travel - and i like how the cursor changes (to a red dot) only when in fast mode. it doesn't get in the way of any other cursors that the system (or design) programs use.

i just need to make my logitech mouse behave now. i think it makes the alt key lock down sometimes - which was probably what was causing MAT to stop working. maybe.

anyway, great job, skwire.

skwire · « **Reply #33 on:** May 02, 2010, 09:06 AM »

Great to hear. I'll promote that test build to a full release. Thanks for the feedback.

skwire · « **Reply #34 on:** May 02, 2010, 09:13 AM »

Website | Download v1.0.3 - 2010-05-02 + Added ability to specify a custom cursor. (Thanks, nudone)

nudone · « **Reply #35 on:** May 02, 2010, 09:53 AM »

i've realised that using the middle mouse button to control acceleration isn't that clever - there are other programs that can use the middle mouse button; silly of me to forget that.

so, if anyone is interested i've changed things to middle + right buttons (together) to accelerate.

keeping the return to default speed set at middle button release only (instead of middle + right button release), appears to have the extra benefit of acting like a toggle - so you can keep locked into acceleration mode until you just hit the middle mouse button again (the middle release obviously triggered the MButton Up action).

If you want to keep things so that only acceleration works when middle and right buttons are held down then change the 2nd line from "MButton Up" to "MButton & RButton Up"

Code: AutoIt [Select]

MButton & RButton:: Run, "C:\Program Files\MouseAccelToggler\MouseAccelToggler.exe" accel=on speed=20 cursor="C:\Program Files\MouseAccelToggler\cursor large red.cur"
MButton Up:: Run, "C:\Program Files\MouseAccelToggler\MouseAccelToggler.exe" accel=off speed=10 cursor="Default"

doctorfrog · « **Reply #36 on:** November 03, 2010, 01:29 PM »

Just saw this on gHacks: http://www.ghacks.ne...-settings-per-mouse/

It promises to be exactly what I need, a program that's smart enough to differentiate between multiple pointing devices and apply separate sensitivity settings for each.

Why Windows can't do this on its own is still a mystery, my work laptop has up to three devices on it: a touchpad, a joystick nub, and a wireless mouse, all with their own little sensitivity quirks. There are literally millions of laptops like this out there.

Down side: It's nagware, which costs 7.50 in european moon money to register.

edit: http://sourceforge.n...rojects/automousesw/ appears to be an open source solution.

tomos · « **Reply #37 on:** November 03, 2010, 02:01 PM »

7.50 in european moon money
-doctorfrog (November 03, 2010, 01:29 PM)

moon calling earth lol

Shades · « **Reply #38 on:** November 03, 2010, 05:00 PM »

Hey, if they can go go from the moon called Europa to this planet for 7.5o euro, then why is the Europe Space Agency not the reeking in the profits from inter-planetary trade and/or resources?

hyz · « **Reply #39 on:** September 16, 2011, 05:46 AM »

I got this app and it seemed simple and great, but while the toggling works fine between the states, the acceleration-enabled state handles waay differently from what it was before using this app. I don't like it and am looking for ways to return it to the Windows (7) defaults, but it seems to have messed up some internal acceleration related values that Windows doesn't even let you access from the control panel.

I know I'm a bit late to the party here, but since there seem to be some actual value-based settings that need to be set instead of "just" toggling it, it could be nice to expose them with command line options, like the base speed.

skwire · « **Reply #40 on:** September 16, 2011, 08:06 AM »

I've never used any sort of mouse acceleration but the settings you're looking for might be found here:

Go to the Control Panel.
Click Ease of Access.
Click Change how your mouse works.
Click Set up Mouse Keys.

There's an acceleration slider in there. On my Windows 7 VM, it's set directly in the middle. If that doesn't work, I Googled for "windows 7 mouse acceleration fix" and it came back with a ton of hits so it appears you're not the only person to experience mouse acceleration issues in Windows 7.

sediavindivoh · « **Reply #41 on:** July 24, 2013, 02:50 PM »

Hi guys! I'm sorry for the noob question but I am really frustrated. I downloaded MouseAccelToggler.exe, extracted it, and ran it and got the popup. That's all good... But I can't get it to actually do anything. I realize it needs "- parameters" but I CANNOT get my windows to give it -params.

I have tried renaming MouseAccelToggler.exe to MouseAccelToggler.exe -speed=18 but that doesn't work because it changes from an exe file to one that windows doesn't recognize so it will not launch.

I have tried creating a shortcut and changing the target to "C:\Users\Alan\Desktop\MouseAccelToggler\-speed=18 MouseAccelToggler.exe" -speed=18

Then it says the following variable name contains an illegal character ARG_-speed the current thread will exit.

I've tried changing Start In to including a -speed=18 on the end, and that didn't work either.

Please tell me how, specifically, to just make this change thing work, as its the only program I've been able to find that will fix my problem. Thankyou

skwire · « **Reply #42 on:** July 24, 2013, 03:17 PM »

Hi, sediavindivoh, and welcome to the DonationCoder site.

I have tried creating a shortcut and changing the target to "C:\Users\Alan\Desktop\MouseAccelToggler\-speed=18 MouseAccelToggler.exe" -speed=18
-sediavindivoh (July 24, 2013, 02:50 PM)

There are no dashes in MAT's parameters so, based on your current path, change the target to:

"C:\Users\Alan\Desktop\MouseAccelToggler\MouseAccelToggler.exe" speed=18

sediavindivoh · « **Reply #43 on:** July 24, 2013, 04:42 PM »

That did the trick. Thanks very much

skwire · « **Reply #44 on:** July 24, 2013, 04:45 PM »

That did the trick. Thanks very much
-sediavindivoh (July 24, 2013, 04:42 PM)

You're welcome. Good to know you got it working.

doctorfrog · « **Reply #45 on:** February 11, 2020, 03:53 PM »

Bump to Skwire: I recently installed Windows 10, and this program works fine on it. I use it to flip between a mouse and a wireless touchpad regularly. Works as well as ever.

What's interesting about MAT (don't know if I mentioned this earlier in the thread) is that it--and thus the Windows registry as well--offers a slightly finer-grained control over mouse speed than the control panel applet. The sweet spot for my mouse is actually between two of the ticks in the applet! So I can ditch the heavy Logitech application that I'd otherwise need to install and have continually running in the background.

So yeah, I've been using the two projects you've made for me: this, and Anuran, for going on a decade now. Thanks!