Programmable 5 Button Mouse Issues In PT 11.2...

[The Weed]

Is anyone successfully using a programmable 5 button mouse with Windows 8 and Pro Tools 11.2?

I have two Microsoft 5 button mice (Explorer 3.0 and Comfort Mouse 4500) and, while all programmed buttons work in all my other programs, with the exception of Acronis True Image Home, I cannot get the button's programmed assignments recognized in Pro Tools 11.2, they act just like regular "dumb" mice. They worked fine in Windows XP and Pro Tools LE 8.0.5.

I've tried fresh installs of Windows 8 with Pro Tools 11.2, Pro Tools 10.3.7 and various "Run In Compatibility" modes - and always run Pro Tools as Administrator - and also various mouse drivers with various "Run In Compatibility" modes as well and always run the installer as Administrator.

Is anyone successfully using a programmable mouse with Pro Tools 11.2 on Windows 8 and if so, which one? I'm thinking of getting the Razer DeathAdder Black as it's been compared in size and weight to my favorite mouse, the MS Explorer 3.0, but don't want to spend the money if it's not going to work.

TIA

[guitardom]

Do you have it set to do macro's??

Check UAC in windows and make sure its disabled.

[The Weed]

guitardom, thanks for taking the time to try to help.

UAC disabled and all other Pro Tools optimizations done per Avid's KB Article.

No Macros, just Key assignments:

Left Click = Left Click

Right Click = "B"

Mouse Wheel Button = Ctrl+B

Large Thumb Button = Num +

Small Thumb Button = Num -

All worked fine in 8.0.5 on Windows XP SP3. However, in Windows 8 there are a few programs other than Pro Tools where button assignments also don't work. Acronis True Image Home 2014 is one and the other is a legacy program that has no business working in Windows 8, but does (on another computer). Can't determine if it's the program not recognizing the mouse driver or what. Which is why I wanted to know if anyone had a 5 button programmable mouse that was working properly in PT 11. I'd gladly buy it to get my editing efficiency back.

Merry Christmas!

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by The Weed

guitardom, thanks for taking the time to try to help.

UAC disabled and all other Pro Tools optimizations done per Avid's KB Article.

No Macros, just Key assignments:

Left Click = Left Click

Right Click = "B"

Mouse Wheel Button = Ctrl+B

Large Thumb Button = Num +

Small Thumb Button = Num -

All worked fine in 8.0.5 on Windows XP SP3. However, in Windows 8 there are a few programs other than Pro Tools where button assignments also don't work. Acronis True Image Home 2014 is one and the other is a legacy program that has no business working in Windows 8, but does (on another computer). Can't determine if it's the program not recognizing the mouse driver or what. Which is why I wanted to know if anyone had a 5 button programmable mouse that was working properly in PT 11. I'd gladly buy it to get my editing efficiency back.

Merry Christmas!

When I have time I will look into this as it is interesting. W8 is being difficult on "protection" of the system and making functions unaccessible by any sort of macro or shortcut programming. You used to get around this by shutting off UAC in 7, but I was having some issues a few months back on some programming and did some research to find this out. I am not saying this IS your problem, but saying it could be a culprit. I have a keyboard and mouse both that are programmable, but have not tried it on 8.

[The Weed]

In the interest of more information, according to personal experience and research, Windows 8 and 8.1 are not handling USB, at least for mice and keyboards, all that well. The mouse won't scroll properly - very jittery and/or won't select something you try to click on - and the keyboard will go into repeat key mode when you hit enter adding a gazillion paragraph breaks. The work around is to disable Intel XHCI Mode in BIOS. I've tried using the 5 button mouse in Pro Tools 11 with Intel XCHI Mode enabled and disabled. No difference. However, the mouse and keyboard behaviour in other programs when it's disabled is what it should be, at least as far as losing the jitteriness and extra paragraph breaks.

Cheers,

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by The Weed

In the interest of more information, according to personal experience and research, Windows 8 and 8.1 are not handling USB, at least for mice and keyboards, all that well. The mouse won't scroll properly - very jittery and/or won't select something you try to click on - and the keyboard will go into repeat key mode when you hit enter adding a gazillion paragraph breaks. The work around is to disable Intel XHCI Mode in BIOS. I've tried using the 5 button mouse in Pro Tools 11 with Intel XCHI Mode enabled and disabled. No difference. However, the mouse and keyboard behaviour in other programs when it's disabled is what it should be, at least as far as losing the jitteriness and extra paragraph breaks.

Cheers,

Are you plugged into a USB3 port. The inside of the port will typically be blue.

[The Weed]

I have an ASUS Z87-Pro MB. It only has USB 3.0 ports. I also use a KVM switch, which is 2.0. I have tried the mouse through the KVM, through a USB 2.0 hub, plugged the mouse directly into a USB 3.0 port and I also had a USB 2.0/eSATA backplate installed and have plugged the mouse directly into that. No matter how the mouse is plugged in, the programmed buttons work as programmed in all programs, with the exception of Pro Tools and Acronis.

BTW, PM me your mailing address, I want/need to make a donation for Trasher - a lifesaver.

Thanks,

[The Weed]

You have to love Windows, there's always somebody coding away, providing a solution to a problem. In my case, X-Mouse Button Control. Uninstall the Mouse software from Microsoft, install XMBC, set up the buttons the way I want and good to go. BTW, Gamers will love XMBC.

I had also purchased a Logitech M500 mouse, thinking Logitech's SetPoint software would solve my issue. It didn't and it wasn't useful for Pro Tools anyway, at least for me, because in Program Specific mode, you can't reprogram the Right Click. However, works fine with XMBC. Here's my settings now and I have 7 buttons instead of the 5 I had with the MS Explorer 3.0 mouse:

Left Click = Left Click

Right Click = B (Separate at Cursor in Commands Focus Mode)

Wheel Button = CTRL+B (Clear and using ALT+Wheel Button brings up the Bounce Dialogue)

Thumb Button = NUM"+" (Nudge Right)

Other Thumb Button = Num"-" (Nudge Left)

Wheel Tilt Left = Delete (Great for editing text in Dialogue Boxes)

Wheel Tilt Right = Right Click (To bring up the Right Click Menus)

(The Tilt Wheel function doesn't work in Pro Tools.)

And I ran the XMBC installer as Administrator and in Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode as the software was taking a long time come up after Boot on my Work computer, but worked fine without Compatibility Mode on my Pro Tools computer. Both are Windows 8.1 Pro. Another point for Windows - backwards compatibility.

Merry Christmas!