TouchPad (Mouse) registry settings problem - need help

[KenR]

Hi Gang,

I know this isn't a tech support site, so sorry about the site abuse, but I thought someone might be able to help me with this.

Every time I boot my computer, I have to use the control panel applet and adjust the mouse settings. This sometimes, but pretty infrequently, occurs when I suspend. I have tried adjusting the registry, but apparently whatever in memory needs to update doesn't read it, so my manipulating the registry has had no effect. Does anyone know how to set the default touchpad (synaptics) settings so it boots to the correct values OR how I could write a program to change these in memory OR ...  I have tried updating my synaptics touchpad driver, but to no avail. For what it's worth, MouseSensitivity is the primary key that the applet changes that I have manipulated to no avail.

Ok, that's the problem. Who can tell me how to fix this??? Anyone who succeeds gets a virtual cookie of their choosing.

Thanks (if you even think about trying to help me),
Ken

[mouser]

one general thing you could do is install a program that can take and compare registry snapshots (there are quite a few of these such tools).

then you could take a snapshot, change the settings, then take and compare the registry.

then you could export the relevant settings to a .reg file which could be run on startup.

[Darwin]

Hmm... interesting (Darwin will say and do anything for a cookie, virtual or otherwise). I take it that mousesensitivity is a must-have feature for you? I ask because I finally gave up on synaptics and uninstalled their software and drivers. My notebook's touchpad seems just fine to me, but maybe I'm not too fussy about these things?

Anyway, as the first respondent, I'll take the liberty of stating the obvious and suggesting that you do what you no doubt have already done: uninstall all the synaptics software that you can find and reboot. Before re-installing, see if the touchpad is functional without it - mine is, but then I don't have those scroll-bar thingies on mine - and check the mouse applet in the control panel to see what configuration options are available to you now. You might find that things are fine without Synaptics. If not, reinstall and reboot and try again.

Good luck!

DOH! Mouser takes first place in the response rate race. Does this mean he gets a bigger cookie? Bummed.

[KenR]

Ok, here is what I have done so far:

1. monitor the applet to see where it is writing in the registry and modified those keys as appropriate. That is how I found out what got modified. When I modify these keys though, it doesn't change the mouse functioning. Any programs you would suggest for comparing. I was going to do that, made copies, but then I couldn't get my super reg editor to do it. I therefore used RegMon and went to the below step. Somewhere though, there seems to be a default setting with a different name or not in the registry so it is evading me so far.

2. uninstalled and reinstalled - to death, including downloading other versions of the synaptics driver as well as just using the winxp driver. It doesn't matter. The settings go back to some default and I have to reset them with the applet. What makes this more interesting is that it does this with the xp version as well as all synaptics versions. Regarding the point about how important is this, sensitivity in this case is SPEED. The mouse cursor moves extremely little from touchpad manipulations. So, I could reset these settings manually every time I boot, but it is critical that they are modified so the touchpad is functional.

3. used a startup monitor and disabled every program. Oh, just to be clear, whatever is changing the default also changes the registry values. Thus, every time I boot, the settings in the registry keys in the current user account are wrong again. I don't know if these registry settings are changed on shut down or start up.

None of the above manipulations have made ANY difference.

These are the boot values:


Here are the values after setting pointer speed to fast and checking the enhanced precision box:


Ken

[Darwin]

Mouser's idea looks good - export the registry file once you've set things the way you want them and then have it automatically run on system start. Of course, if you're like me this might work but it will still drive you to distraction because it shouldn't have to be like this! I'm afraid I don't have any great ideas other than to have you look at your security apps - do you have anything running that might be blocking writes to the registry? In the past I had problems with RegDefend and Tenebril's SpyCatcher resetting registry settings on each boot. Drove me nuts until I traced it down.

Just a thought...

[mouser]

one note:
before you try to get it to run on startup, just try running it manually after the machine boots and is configured wrong.
then you can at least verify that by simply changing the registry settings the changes take effect immediately.
if not, you may have something else to do as well.

Darwin's suggestion about uninstalling the drivers completely is worth trying if you've so far only tried RE-installing.  Just to be clear, what he suggested is running your computer without using the synaptics drivers at all and just using MS built in settings and driver.  I can't tell if you said you already tried that, or have just tried uninstalling and reinstalling.

[Darwin]

Looks like you've got a way to compare the registry before and after install, but here's another OS app that will let you do so, courtesy of SHELL EXTENSION CITY

Regshot