WizMouse 1.7.0.2

Overview

WizMouse is a mouse center wheel utility to get much more out of that little wheel in the center of your mouse between the left and right buttons.

The application completely changes the behavior of the mouse wheel so that scrolling the wheel up or down will affect the application window being hovered over rather than the window that still has focus. This means that an application window can be in the foreground with focus, but a document window in the background without focus can be scrolled down to read more of that is displayed further down on the page. This could potentially be very useful in certain situations and reduce the amount of clicking to focus, scrolling down and then having to switch back to the previous application that had focus before which isn't always as easy now as it could potentially be behind another window.

The application may be less than successful for laptop users with trackpads as the mouse movements are not dealt with in the same way. This is particularly true between hardware manufacturers who often have different ways to indicate a middle mouse scroll (like two fingers on the trackpad and moving downwards together to indicate a scroll down motion on some laptops). There is also an issue with Logitech mice where the drivers for Logitech may need to be updated to the latest version for the application to work in harmony with WizMouse.

Installation

The installation went without any issues and completed quickly. There was no malicious software included with the installation.

The software requires Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 or 8 (32-bit or 64-bit supported)

Interface

The interface is basically a few options to select between how the middle scroll wheel on a mouse will be used and whether the background application being scroll-controlled can become the active window. There can be a system tray icon which can help to access the features, but this can also be removed too.

Pros

• Middle scroll mouse wheel support which can scroll a background app when hovered over
• Can convert middle scroll wheel to equivalent scroll bar movement in applications
• Ability to bring windows that were in the foreground and are now being scrolled, to the foreground

Cons

• There can be conflicts with Logitech mice. The developers suggesting updating to the latest Logitech drivers which is expects will clear the issue.
• Likely will not function correctly, or at all, on laptop trackpads that lack an organic middle scroll button and use different gesture workarounds depending on the manufacturer.

Conclusion

WizMouse is a useful middle scroll wheel application for the mouse which can make it easier to access, scroll and bring to the foreground windows which were previous inactive in the background.