CNET Editors' review
Tiny New Zealand is an up-and-comer in the global tech industry, and Antibody Software's WizMouse is one of the first commercial software products we've encountered from the island nation known for its digital cinematic capabilities. It's a small bit of freeware that lets you use your mouse's scroll wheel to scroll through the window currently under the mouse pointer instead of the top focused or "active" window. Instead of having to click the mouse on the inactive window to enable scrolling, you merely have to position the cursor over the window to focus it. You can also use WizMouse to enable similar scrolling functionality in applications that don't support mouse wheels.
At a little more than 571KB, including an installer, WizMouse is a compact program that downloads and sets up quickly and easily. Since it's designed to do one simple thing, or not, as you choose, its controls and options are appropriately basic, just a dialog with typical options such as running at start-up, enabling or disabling the program quickly with a left-click of the system tray icon, and selecting how many lines to scroll with each turn of the mouse wheel. There's also a check box for the function that converts mouse wheel commands into scrollbar commands, with advice to disable it, should it cause erratic mouse scrolling. Web-based help is a click away.
WizMouse is freeware and works in all versions of Windows, from 2000 to 7. Recent releases have a "Run as Administrator" option for Windows Vista and 7.
Publisher's Description
From Antibody Software:
WizMouse causes your mouse wheel to scroll the window under the mouse pointer instead of the currently focused window. You don't have to click on a window to focus it before you're able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. It can optionally enable mouse wheel functionality in applications that do not support mouse wheels. It can also optionally reverse the mouse scroll wheel direction to simulate "Natural" scrolling as on Apple's OS X Lion.
What's new in this version: Version 1.6.0.2 adds optional reversed mouse wheel scrolling - like OS X "Natural" scrolling. Fixes a bug where WizMouse might terminate after a few days when running on Windows Vista/7 if "run as administrator" was enabled.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 159 votes
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Current version:
4.5 starsout of 22 votes
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My rating:
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"Works on most programs in Win7"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Works nicely and on most programs in Win 7, but I've used Katmouse which worked better in XP, but doesnt really work in 7. Thats why I switched to WizMouse. If Katmouse still worked in 7, then I would not have switched.
Cons
Need a similar function to Katmouse where you can actually add new windows to the software so that it function on the new window.
Summary
Fair product. Wish this sort of functionality was build in into 7, but trust M$ not to do it. If you are using 7, give WizMouse a try, will make life a bit easier
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"Near flawless"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Unlike other similar products, this little software does not affect the multi-touch features of newer Windows-based laptops, and also have full support for side-scrolling [especially for out-of-focus window], which frankly Microsoft itself hasn't really cared for. It also lets you scroll the window even when you have the cursor in the Google search box, and like writing this review in the "Pros" box. You could even perform the pinch-to-zoom gesture on an out-of-focus window.
Cons
While the reverse scrolling option (like Mac OS X Lion) is near perfect, it also unfortunately reverses the pinch-to-zoom gesture, so you end up zooming-out when you perform the pinch-out gesture and vice versa. Also, you can't perform pinch-to-zoom on an out-of-focus window. You can't perform the three-finger flick for back/forward or up/down for out-of-focus windows either, but it's not a deal breaker.
Summary
I envy Apple for having their own hardware that goes perfectly with their software (I do have a MacBook Air '11 btw), but I fear being locked up to specific programs and giving up my freedom of using whatever I want. This software solves the problem of horizontal and vertical scrolling of out-of-focus windows in a Windows environment. I've used in the past softwares that serves the same purpose, but that software disabled the multi-touch abilities of eLan based touchpad on my laptop. This software preserves the multi-touch gestures that maybe offered by your laptop's touchpad manufacturer. It also enables the reverse scrolling like a smartphone, but unfortunately it reverses your pinch-to-zoom gesture also. You can't perform three-finger flick on an out-of focus windows(s). It's a must have for those whose laptop's touchpad manufacturer supports this software, and I'm sure it has full support for Synaptics based touchpads because that's one of the most common manufacturer for Windows-based laptops.
I said in the pros that it lets you pinch-to-zoom for an out of focus window, and I said in the cons that it does not. Well, it's true. It does for some programs, but not so much for the others. Especially the windows explorer and IE, so the Microsoft applications seems to have a problem. But this software does make the pinch-to-zoom erratic, especially the gesture being reversed when you enable reverse scrolling. I disabled the pinch-to-zoom gesture because this software makes all other gestures so usable for out-of-focus windows. So yeah, an update is in question.
Updated on Mar 27, 2012 -
"great little app!"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
don't have to click on all over the screen to active a window -- move cursor and bingo!
Cons
not working for few program -- waiting for updates.
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"Great! Though doesn't work with a few programs"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Solves a major annoyance in Windows that should have been included by default.
Cons
Doesn't work with a few programs, but doesn't create any problems either. A minor issue.
Summary
Excellent tool that I would recommend for any user of Windows.
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"Excellent little Tool"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Does exactly what the description says it does.
Cons
None really
Summary
Well worth downloading if you want your Mouse to work as it should do.
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"Does what it says it would"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Install it and forget it. An invaluable addition to my utilities.
Cons
It wasn't on once because I clicked the system tray icon accidentally and didn't know, but clicking it again turned it right back on.
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"Does what it says"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Works well, low resources/hdd space required.
Cons
Doesn't come in Win7 already...
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"mouse wheel behaviour"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
It makes me not to switch Apps only for scrolling!
Cons
Causes the behaviour described on 1st comment of: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3t073d82%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
If the mouse wheel has already assigned to it an action different than scrolling, it should not be replaced with scrolling! -
"great idea, but..."
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
does what it says, BUT...
Cons
...I expect the window scrolling to stop as soon as I stop rotating the wheel - BUT IT DOESN'T! It seems to have some kind of "auto-repeat" on the scroll wheel, and it goes on scrolling until all the rotating has been used up. I use a smooth-scrolling wheel, which may make a difference. Can't use it.
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"works as promised within Windows 7"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
very convenient for my often used DB compares.
Cons
none yet and none expected.
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