Stopping Mouse Auto-Selection on Hover

[Gene Wirchenko]

Dear Win7ers:

I have a laptop running Windows 7. It has a Elan Smart-Pad for
the "mouse". I dislike this and usually use a USB mouse. Sometimes
though, it is not worth the trouble to dig out the mouse, and I use
the pad.

It is more awkward for me to use than a mouse. Not surprisingly,
I am slower with it. In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

There is a setting "Ease of Use Center -- Make the mouse easier
to use -- Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" that
seems as if it might be part of the issue, but this is unchecked.

I am looking for something on the order of "Do not click
automatically. Let the user do it." (or the reverse meaning).

While I am at it, how do you other pad users handle using one? On
my system, the pad is very slightly rough, and it is uncomfortable to
use the pad much as my finger very quickly gets sensitised. Or is
this just a personal issue for me?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Dear Win7ers:

I have a laptop running Windows 7. It has a Elan Smart-Pad for
the "mouse". I dislike this and usually use a USB mouse. Sometimes
though, it is not worth the trouble to dig out the mouse, and I use
the pad.

It is more awkward for me to use than a mouse. Not surprisingly,
I am slower with it. In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

I don't think this is a pad/mouse difference - I think the same will
happen if you use a mouse.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

There is a setting "Ease of Use Center -- Make the mouse easier
to use -- Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" that
seems as if it might be part of the issue, but this is unchecked.

(Sorry, I don't know. But I think it can be done.)

I am looking for something on the order of "Do not click
automatically. Let the user do it." (or the reverse meaning).

While I am at it, how do you other pad users handle using one? On
my system, the pad is very slightly rough, and it is uncomfortable to
use the pad much as my finger very quickly gets sensitised. Or is
this just a personal issue for me?

[]
I have the opposite problem: on the whole, I have little problem using
the pad (in fact, using the machine truly on my lap as I sit here on my
sofa, a mouse would be somewhat awkward to use). My main difficulty is
that the pad on this (Samsung NC-20, a 12" netbook) feels more or less
the same as the surrounding surface, with an almost impossible to detect
edge to it - so I often find I'm trying to move/click outside the pad
area. (Both are smooth on this one.) I keep meaning to stick something
around the edge of the pad area: I'd more or less decided to use some
insulation stripped from some thin wire, which would I think give enough
to feel. I suspect your pad _is_ rough for exactly that reason, so you
can feel when you've gone off it. (Better might have been to have the
surround rough and the pad not.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

... but it's princess Leia in /Star Wars/ who retains the throne in terms of
abiding iconography. Ask any teenage boy, including the grown-up ones.
- Andrew Collins, RT 16-22 April 2011

 

[Iceman]

Gene Wirchenko wrote 21 Nov 2012 in

I have a laptop running Windows 7. It has a Elan Smart-Pad for
the "mouse". I dislike this and usually use a USB mouse. Sometimes
though, it is not worth the trouble to dig out the mouse, and I use
the pad.

It is more awkward for me to use than a mouse. Not surprisingly,
I am slower with it. In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

There is a setting "Ease of Use Center -- Make the mouse easier
to use -- Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" that
seems as if it might be part of the issue, but this is unchecked.

I am looking for something on the order of "Do not click
automatically. Let the user do it." (or the reverse meaning).

While I am at it, how do you other pad users handle using one? On
my system, the pad is very slightly rough, and it is uncomfortable to
use the pad much as my finger very quickly gets sensitised. Or is
this just a personal issue for me?

Hi Gene

Although not a pad user myself, I have found that updating your laptop's
drivers can help with the problem, so it's probably not an issue with the
laptop or mouse, like J.P. stated earlier.

 

[BillW50]

Dear Win7ers:

I have a laptop running Windows 7. It has a Elan Smart-Pad for
the "mouse". I dislike this and usually use a USB mouse. Sometimes
though, it is not worth the trouble to dig out the mouse, and I use
the pad.

It is more awkward for me to use than a mouse. Not surprisingly,
I am slower with it. In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

There is a setting "Ease of Use Center -- Make the mouse easier
to use -- Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" that
seems as if it might be part of the issue, but this is unchecked.

I am looking for something on the order of "Do not click
automatically. Let the user do it." (or the reverse meaning).

While I am at it, how do you other pad users handle using one? On
my system, the pad is very slightly rough, and it is uncomfortable to
use the pad much as my finger very quickly gets sensitised. Or is
this just a personal issue for me?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

I can use any device almost equally well. Although I have to admit that
almost always, a mouse is one of my favorites (but not always). And I
can't remember ever seeing what you are describing by default (except
tap to click). Although I have seen it as a selectable setting.

The feature that you might be seeing is suppose to save you the trouble
of holding the left click and dragging. So you don't have to hold down
the left click to do so. And thus if you hover for a second (or whatever
the sensitivity is set too) it will automatically act like you are
holding down the left click.

Another feature that it could be is usually called tap to click. I
really don't care too much for this one either. But most of my laptops
(about 20 of them) it is on by default. And you can't change the
default, but I can change (toggle) it per logon session. I got so tired
of toggling it that I just live with it on.

How tap to click works is if it senses that you lifted your finger for a
second and then place it back down again, this counts as a single left
click. Yes I can see this as handy. Although I also find this is far too
easy to do so accidentally as well. So even though there is a positive
point in this, I really don't care that much for it.

Since I have to remember to toggle this off with every logon, I just
readjusted and just leave it. Although I have to concisely always
remember not to lift my finger for a second. While it is second nature
to me today, I still don't care for it much.

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:25:26 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

[snip]

I don't think this is a pad/mouse difference - I think the same will
happen if you use a mouse.

I checked. It does not. Sometimes, it happens when my finger is
not touching the pad, but is just above it!

I have extremely dry hands. I wonder if that has anything to do
with it.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[choro]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:25:26 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

[snip]

I don't think this is a pad/mouse difference - I think the same will
happen if you use a mouse.

I checked. It does not. Sometimes, it happens when my finger is
not touching the pad, but is just above it!

I have extremely dry hands. I wonder if that has anything to do
with it.

I must butt in at this stage and report that I don't get along with
touch pads either. And this annoys me tremendously when visiting friends
who have no mice. So I tend to carry a mouse with me in my shoulder bag
in which I also carry my camera and odd bits and pieces.

Somehow touch pads are NOT responsive to my RH index finger. It could be
to do with my fingerprint or skin texture. This is particularly true on
cheaper laptops.--
choro
*****

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Six Underground]

In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

Control Panel > Ease of Access > Ease of Accesss Center > Make the
Mouse Easier to Use

Untick "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse".

Enjoy the day.

6U

 

[Six Underground]

Control Panel > Ease of Access > Ease of Accesss Center > Make the
Mouse Easier to Use

Untick "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse".

Enjoy the day.

6U

Never mind.. apparently you've tried that. It certainly worked well
for me at the time I needed it to. I too have the Elan touch-pad..
would this be a Toshiba?

6U

 

[Paul]

Never mind.. apparently you've tried that. It certainly worked well
for me at the time I needed it to. I too have the Elan touch-pad..
would this be a Toshiba?

6U

Could you play with that setting, and watch what happens to the Registry ?

Maybe the Elan has a setting, but it uses a separate registry key or something.

Paul

 

[Andy]

Dear Win7ers: snip
How do I turn this auto-selection off?
snip
Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Hi Gene,

Start > Control Panel > Folder Options.

From the Folder Options panel, in the 'Click Items as Follows' section,
click the radio button to select 'Double-click to open an item (single-click
to select)'.

That should sort your problem.

Andy

 

[Six Underground]

Could you play with that setting, and watch what happens to the Registry ?

Maybe the Elan has a setting, but it uses a separate registry key or something.

Paul

You're on the right track! I was toggling that setting earlier this
evening, then using a registry scanner to search for clues that might
be helpful in this case. Unfortunately I came up empty, at least for
now.

I too had a great deal of difficulty taming the mouse behavior on a
Toshiba running 7. What I found, at least on the machine I'm
referring to, was that the mouse had certain default behaviors that
were not correctly represented by the checkboxes for the Windows Ease
of Access mouse options. As silly as it sounds, what I actually had
to do in that case was to go in and tick the checkbox for a given
option, click Apply and OK, close Control Panel, then go in a second
time and untick the same option, saving once again. I don't really
recall whether a reboot was required, but the action certainly
produced the desired result. I would suggest that the OP do the same.
It certainly is worth a shot. I found the mouse hover behavior to be
annoying in the extreme.

When that was all said and done with, I still had issues remaining
with the Elan touch-pad which, in similar fashion, didn't behave
according to the way it was optioned. Those issues were eventually
addressed by going into the system BIOS and disabling the pad
altogether. Laptops can be useful and convenient, but I just don't
get along at all with touch pads.

I'll look around again tomorrow, after I've had some sleep. Been a
long day at the shop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

6U


6U

 

[Jeff Layman]

Dear Win7ers:

I have a laptop running Windows 7. It has a Elan Smart-Pad for
the "mouse". I dislike this and usually use a USB mouse. Sometimes
though, it is not worth the trouble to dig out the mouse, and I use
the pad.

It is more awkward for me to use than a mouse. Not surprisingly,
I am slower with it. In some Windows utilties (Windows Explorer for
one), if I hover over something live, it will be selected. That may
have happened just because I am slower at positioning the pointer or
simply because I am wondering whether I want to proceed.

How do I turn this auto-selection off?

There is a setting "Ease of Use Center -- Make the mouse easier
to use -- Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" that
seems as if it might be part of the issue, but this is unchecked.

Sometimes, very counter-intuitively, it helps to check something which
you want unchecked, reboot, uncheck, and reboot again. You end up at the
same place you started, but this time it works.

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:25:26 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

[snip]

I don't think this is a pad/mouse difference - I think the same will
happen if you use a mouse.

I checked. It does not. Sometimes, it happens when my finger is
not touching the pad, but is just above it!

I have extremely dry hands. I wonder if that has anything to do
with it.

I must butt in at this stage and report that I don't get along with
touch pads either. And this annoys me tremendously when visiting friends
who have no mice. So I tend to carry a mouse with me in my shoulder bag
in which I also carry my camera and odd bits and pieces.

I carry a mouse and mouse pad in my laptop bag. Also, a
full-size keyboard. My laptop is much faster than my main desktop
system, but the ergonomics are much worse.

Somehow touch pads are NOT responsive to my RH index finger. It could be
to do with my fingerprint or skin texture. This is particularly true on
cheaper laptops.--

It is almost always a struggle for me. With a mouse, it is easy.
With a touchpad, I have to pay too much attention to it.

My extremely dry hands were also a lot of fun about a month ago.
I had to be fingerprinted as part of a criminal record check -- since
I work with a child -- and the computerised fingerprinting system did
not like the scans of my fingers. It only accepted scans on two of
them and had to be overridden on the other eight.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:20:58 -0600, Six Underground

[snip]

Never mind.. apparently you've tried that. It certainly worked well
for me at the time I needed it to. I too have the Elan touch-pad..
would this be a Toshiba?

No, an Acer. It is a nice system for me except for the keyboard
and mouse-ish.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko