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 155 votes
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Current version:
4.4 starsout of 18 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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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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"Great Idea, and tool!!"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
Makes a mouse behave like a mouse oughtta!
Cons
NONE that I have found!!
Summary
I saw a reviewer say that it doesn't work with Win 7,64 bit, - But that's what I have on a desktop unit, and TWO laptops. - It works just fine! - Once you have it, you can't live without it.
Besides, if it doesn't work out for some reason, just UnInstall it. -
"Won't work with Windows 7 64 bit edition"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
It worked great on Windows Vista...after using it for awhile, I don't know how I ever got by without it!
Cons
It won't work on my new pc :( I've installed it several times, and it never works. If I don't click on the window, I can't scroll on it.
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"I love this little program! It works perfectly!"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
1. Totally transparent installation. Basically, click download, click 'Install' and go.
2. Beautiful smooth scrolling action, including accelerated scrolling.
3. Scrolling inactive windows is tremendous help.
4. And it's free!Cons
Not really a con, but I had to unlearn years of scrolling opposite way. But it is well worth it.
Summary
It this program is an example of this company's efforts, then I look forward to exploring their other products.
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"Works just like Ubuntu linux does!"
Version: WizMouse 1.6.0.2
Pros
+Allows scrolling windows in the background
-Without losing foreground focus
+Improves productivity when referencing research documentation
+Reduces lost time switching between apps just to scroll
+Simple Enable/Disable feature
+Supports programs that do not normally support scrolling
+Works with 64-bit Windows editions
+Free :DCons
+Occasionally you may have to close and restart it, especially after sleeping your computer
+Runs as a separate start-up application - would like to see it hook into ALL applications without the need for a running EXESummary
I was really disappointed to find a feature in Ubuntu Linux that didn't get incorporated into Windows... wait, no I'm not. Microsoft would never think of something this awesome. :D
Point being stated, WizMouse is amazing for being such a simple tool; allowing easy scrolling of any window your mouse cursor is under. Why switch windows just to scroll down a couple line? EVERY OS needs this built in, as it saves time and boosts productivity. Simple to say, I love it, and even though it's freeware, give 'em a couple bucks for their trouble!
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