LostInTechnology

How To Use Apple’s Magic Mouse on a Windows PC

Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by UzEE in How To

Apple’s hardware is notorious for having elegant designs backed by innovative engineering. From their desktops (like iMacs) to handheld devices (like the iPods), every single piece of hardware is an example of excellent craftsmanship.

So is the case with their newly unveiled Magic Mouse, which replaced their previous Mighty Mouse in their mainstream desktop lineup. The Magic Mouse’s main highlight isn’t its curved design or the elegant build – it’s what features it packs. The whole surface of the mouse is a capacitive sensor giving you full multi-touch control over your Mac.

Unfortunately, those in the Windows PC camp (which includes Bootcamp users) were left in the cold because the mouse only worked with Apple’s machines. And to make things worse, the only devices with similar functionality for the PC market are a couple of engineering prototypes by Microsoft – which even though are far more advanced, would still require lots of time before going mainstream.

Thankfully to fill in this gap, a couple of wonderful people from UnEasySilence have managed to make their Magic Mouse work on computers running Microsoft Windows. Here is a simple how-to guide for you to get the same functionality on your machine.

The Guide

First of all, you will need the hardware for this job. This includes an Apple Magic Mouse that will run you $69 from the Apple Store. And you will also need a Bluetooth 2.0 adapter in your computer. If you have notebook, then you probably have one built in, but if you’re on a desktop or don’t have one in your notebook, then you can easily get one for around $20.

Next, you need to setup your Bluetooth. Connect your adapter with your PC and install the hardware drivers. Pair up the Magic Mouse with your Windows from the Bluetooth Manager. Your mouse should now work as a standard two button mouse without any scrolling or multi-touch features.

To enable touch sensitive scrolling, you need to install a hacked Bluetooth driver for the Magic Mouse. By hacked, it means it was modified to run on non Apple hardware. The actual driver was released by Apple as a Bluetooth Update for the iMac lineup to make the older models compatible with the new mouse.

The BootCamp version of the drivers were extracted from the Apple update by the people at UnEasySilence and slightly modified to run on non-Apple hardware. The drivers are available for both 32-bit (download) and 64-bit (download) version of Windows and work with everything from Windows XP up till Windows 7.

After installing the drivers, vertical scrolling should now work in Windows. Of course since this isn’t an official driver, you may run into some issues. Some applications still don’t accept the scroll input, while some even work with horizontal scrolling.

If the above drivers don’t work for your system, then you can try out Microsoft’s IntelliPoint SideWinder X8 drivers for your system. A lot of people have reported successful horizontal and vertical scrolling after using these drivers. Remember to share your experience in the comments section below.

Article By Uzair Sajid (UzEE), a technologist and a freelance blogger who also authors The Technopath.

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Tags: Apple, apple magic mouse, How To, magic, magic mouse on windows, mouse, use magic mouse on windows