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how do I solve my tech issues?
Sep. 2nd, 2023 10:13 amTech knowledgeable people: Talk to me about computer mice and other options to move the pointer around the screen, what might solve the problems I describe below, and what works reliably for you.
For many, many years I always used a drawing pen with a small tablet, set so that if I touched the upper left corner of the tablet the pointer would hop to the upper left corner of the screen, and if I touched it to the lower left corner of the tablet, it would hop to the lower left corner of the screen, and it always behaved, and I never, ever lost the pointer somewhere on the screen so that I didn't know which way to move things to be able to click where I wanted to, and it was good. The pen had two buttons, on the side, and I set one to double click, and the other to right-click, and my computer interaction always did exactly what I wanted to when it comes to navigating around the screen and clicking on stuff. Until I was forced to update to a more recent versions of Windows (I am running version 10 now, I think, but I think even the one before that had partial issues with the pen), which isn't playing nice with my pen, with symptoms such as about 60 to 80% of the time refusing to open the suggestions for better spellings if I use the pen button to right-click on an underlined word, and other, little similar, inconsistent annoyances that became just enough of a problem that, for the first time in my life, I actually hooked up a mouse to the computer for my own use, as the computer responded to its right-mouse button reliably.
However, these days the computer may respond to the right mouse button on the mouse, but the mouse does NOT reliably move the pointer on the screen. It gets stuck (the pointer), and just sits there, no matter how much I jiggle the mouse or move it side to side, until it suddenly unsticks, and jumps to a random position, out of sight, where I can't find it, and I have to struggle to get it back to the place where I need to click to accomplish what I am doing.
When this happens I sometimes reach for the drawing pen, and am relieved to be able to move the cursor to exactly the right place, with millimeter precision, again, but it may or may not let me click or right click on anything when I get there. Using the pen to get there and the mouse to click doesn't always work, because touching the mouse often moves the cursor just off position to be able to click on what I had just moved over.
I have learned LOTS of keyboard shortcuts to work around the mouse navigation issues, but I don't know any keyboard shortcuts for right-mouse tasks, and all and all this is really frustrating.
What tool can I use that will ALWAYS let me move the cursor smoothly and easily to where I want it to be and ALWAYS let me click, or right click, or scroll, or otherwise interact with the computer?
Is there some other brand of drawing pen that works better with Windows than my old Wacom one? (or a more recent Wacom one that actually works with Windows as it is today?)
Is there a mouse that actually behaves and moves the cursor without having it freeze up or vanish?
Is it just a bad USB extension cord that is the issue with the mouse now (I don't remember the mouse issue being this bad when I was able to plug directly into the computer, but it still had some reliability issues, and the pen issues way pre-date the USB extension cord).
Do they still make those trackball things, and if so, do they work reliably?
The frustration is real, but it isn't a good time to buy a new computer (both for reasons of budget and being in final thesis write-up mode), but perhaps I could throw a smaller amount of money at this problem and solve it?
What would you do?
For many, many years I always used a drawing pen with a small tablet, set so that if I touched the upper left corner of the tablet the pointer would hop to the upper left corner of the screen, and if I touched it to the lower left corner of the tablet, it would hop to the lower left corner of the screen, and it always behaved, and I never, ever lost the pointer somewhere on the screen so that I didn't know which way to move things to be able to click where I wanted to, and it was good. The pen had two buttons, on the side, and I set one to double click, and the other to right-click, and my computer interaction always did exactly what I wanted to when it comes to navigating around the screen and clicking on stuff. Until I was forced to update to a more recent versions of Windows (I am running version 10 now, I think, but I think even the one before that had partial issues with the pen), which isn't playing nice with my pen, with symptoms such as about 60 to 80% of the time refusing to open the suggestions for better spellings if I use the pen button to right-click on an underlined word, and other, little similar, inconsistent annoyances that became just enough of a problem that, for the first time in my life, I actually hooked up a mouse to the computer for my own use, as the computer responded to its right-mouse button reliably.
However, these days the computer may respond to the right mouse button on the mouse, but the mouse does NOT reliably move the pointer on the screen. It gets stuck (the pointer), and just sits there, no matter how much I jiggle the mouse or move it side to side, until it suddenly unsticks, and jumps to a random position, out of sight, where I can't find it, and I have to struggle to get it back to the place where I need to click to accomplish what I am doing.
When this happens I sometimes reach for the drawing pen, and am relieved to be able to move the cursor to exactly the right place, with millimeter precision, again, but it may or may not let me click or right click on anything when I get there. Using the pen to get there and the mouse to click doesn't always work, because touching the mouse often moves the cursor just off position to be able to click on what I had just moved over.
I have learned LOTS of keyboard shortcuts to work around the mouse navigation issues, but I don't know any keyboard shortcuts for right-mouse tasks, and all and all this is really frustrating.
What tool can I use that will ALWAYS let me move the cursor smoothly and easily to where I want it to be and ALWAYS let me click, or right click, or scroll, or otherwise interact with the computer?
Is there some other brand of drawing pen that works better with Windows than my old Wacom one? (or a more recent Wacom one that actually works with Windows as it is today?)
Is there a mouse that actually behaves and moves the cursor without having it freeze up or vanish?
Is it just a bad USB extension cord that is the issue with the mouse now (I don't remember the mouse issue being this bad when I was able to plug directly into the computer, but it still had some reliability issues, and the pen issues way pre-date the USB extension cord).
Do they still make those trackball things, and if so, do they work reliably?
The frustration is real, but it isn't a good time to buy a new computer (both for reasons of budget and being in final thesis write-up mode), but perhaps I could throw a smaller amount of money at this problem and solve it?
What would you do?