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Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop

List Price: $99.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: not perfect, but great
Review: I love it, the 6 feet limit thing, thats garbage, it works like 30 feet away, and through multiple walls. The normal complaint of wireless devices being too slow, doesnt apply, this one is good for gaming.

At first the keyboard didnt register some of my keypresses, but when i moved the receiver away from my monitor it started to work. The mouse at random times (frequently) jumps to random places on the screen.

The color scheme and shape, way cool. And the mouse doesnt have sharp edges like the Intellimouse optical. (Which i still love, no flaws other than the sharp edges ont he two side buttons)

The mouse doesnt turn off with the computer, but thats understandable since it would need a receiver, and the receiver would need a transmitter, which is more expensive. Same for the lack of indicator lights on the keyboard. Battery life is unknown, I recommend taking the batteries out of the mouse at least when not in use. BATTERIES INCLUDED!!!!

The arrow keys are nice, unlike their natural keyboards where its all crunched up. And the general layout is a nice standard one so its easily memorizable. Cept for the Home/End/ inser/delete pgup/pgdown, its odd now. Scroll lock is gone, but never used anyway. Missing the right side start button but i never used it anyway. The function lock, i dislike, i like my normal keys and it doesnt even seem to work. But I may be wrong.

The options are right in the control panel and easy to use.
I got a big cut on my finger opening the box so watch out.
They should put a mouse and keyboard ps2/usb port on the receiver for when the batteries run out you c an plug the old ones back in. And all cordless devices need recharger docking bays!!!!

I think I've covered everything, oh, i wrote this review with the keyboard in question. I love my new board, and i'll beat someone to death with my old one if they try to take my wireless baby away from me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost Heaven
Review: I love this wireless duo. I use the set at home with my Gateway laptop and its so nice to have a simple hookup and fewer wires in the way. My cat can't pull the wires and mess up my work anymore! I'm still on my first set of batteries after 2 months and very pleased with the overall performance. Only 2 minor issues: First, if you use the NUM Lock to use the 10 key pad and fail to unlock it prior to disconnect, the F Lock sticks on the laptop keypad. Second,I got spoiled using the extra side buttons as back/forward on my previous optical mouse and this mouse does not have that lovely feature. For a casual home user its a great buy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: i love it i love it i love it!!!
Review: i love this!! it's awesome. i got the 1st generation MS Optical mouse (wired) and i must say this wirelss mouse is even better than my original MS wired mouse. anyhow, the only problem i guess is the battery wears out every 2 weeks but i have a load of recharables so it's no biggie for me. i think one thing that'll take a bit of getting used to is the placement of some keys are slightly off from the original wired Microsoft Natural Keyboard which I've been used to like the up and down arrows and the home, end, delete button. but i'll guess i'll get used to it. anyhow, all i can say is wireless is great!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: nice, but has downsides
Review: I really like having a wireless keyboard. But, I wanted to note some annoying downsides:

+ There is a delay after bootup, during which I cannot use the mouse or keyboard. So, it takes longer to log into windows.

+ The F-lock key is really annoying because it's setting is not stored. Each time you reboot, your F1-F12 keys are pretty much useless until you hit F-lock. The MS defined meaning of the function keys without hitting F-lock are no good for someone who is used to the normal meaning of those keys.

+ Non-standard home, end, pageup, pagedown etc, is also annoying
for anyone who uses multiple keyboards. Ther is only one insert key.

+ Post-boot delay also affects RH linux. It looks like lineak.sf.net supports this device, but I have not bothered with customizing the extra keys yet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great!
Review: I really like this keyboard. After a very bad experience with a Logitech wireless combo, I decided to buy this and it works great! It was easy to set up, its reliable, easy to use, I've never had a problem with it. Never. The only reason that it didn't get 5 stars is because the keyboard keys are angular, so it took a while for me to get used to this keyboard. I'm so glad that I bought it. It was worth the money.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: No Keyboard Lights and Only 2 Mouse Buttons . . .
Review: I really like this set and have had no problems in almost one month of daily usage. However the lack of a caps lock light and only 2 buttons on the mouse have ruined my enjoyment of this keyboard. It's going back.

Why in the world has Microsoft chosen to delete these features???

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Close, but not quite perfect
Review: I'll state up front that overall I really like this combination. Keyboard and mouse have a good feel. Others complain about the "6" key being on the wrong side, but I've never been great at touch typing numbers and in fact I prefer the placement on the left. I can take or leave the quick access keys at the top of the keyboard. Use them once in a while, but not often.

But there is room for improvement:

1) Stupid "F Lock" - why was this introduced? Most apps use a de-facto function key assignment. But with this keyboard they redefine those by default and to get "normal" action you have to hit "F Lock". I wish you could at least select which action you want as default.

2) OK, I know they were trying to save some desktop space, but did they have to "squish" the keys above the arrows? I'm a programmer and jump around a lot in code, so I often keep my hand on the arrows. With the old layout the "End" key was directly above the "Up" arrow. Now the strangely oversized "Delete" is there! Many times I've thought I was going to the end of a line only to delete something instead. Doh!

3) Make it rechargable. First batteries in the mouse didn't seem to last very long. Maybe just bum steers in the box. But seems like making the receiver a recharger would be really handy.

Overall a good product. Still no match for the original Natural Keyboard, but far better than the Elite. If you want wireless and can live with the quirks above it's a great system.

Update: Having lived with this combo for several months now I thought I'd add a couple of more thoughts.

- So far, the battery life on the keyboard has been great - still the originals that came in the box. The mouse battery life is horrible! I've had to replace them 4 or 5 times, and it's complaining about low battery now.

- I'll echo the complaint about no lights on the keyboard, but there are lights on the receiver and the way I have mine set up I can see them pretty easily. However a few times the lights have gotten "out of sync" with the actual state and start changing with the wrong keys. For example, I've seen the caps lock key toggle the num lock and f lock lights at the same time. Everything still functions, just the lights are messed up and a reboot is required to get it straightened out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: No problems so far
Review: I've have had the wireless keyboard/mouse for five months now and I just needed to change the batteries in the mouse from the ones that were shipped with it. The keyboard is still on the original ones.

The only problem I have occasionally experienced is the loss of signal. Occasionally, I start the PC and the mouse isn't responding, so I have to push the "connect" button on the bottom of the mouse. Another minor complaint is the lack of Num lock, Caps lock, etc. lights on the keyboard. I understand that it is a power saving issue, but it would be nice to have lights more visible than on the transmitter (which I keep under my desk).

Otherwise, works great and I love not having cables dangling from my keyboard drawer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice Keyboard but Mouse is Missing 2 buttons
Review: I've just purchased this keyboard/mouse combo to replace my existing MS Natural Keyboard (original with full-size function keys) and MS Intellimouse Optical. As I type, I see that this keyboard has a softer "touch", not meaning that the keys are too easily depressed but rather that their sound and feel is softer and quieter. That's a plus overall yet something I'll still have to adjust to somewhat, in terms of "feedback" while typing. Although I don't use the insert key often, I think I prefer the old layout with Delete above Insert rather than the new layout with a double-tall Delete button while insert is moved off to the PrtScrn/SysRq key.

The extended function keys are nice but I'd prefer that standard functions keys be the default while the F-LOCK key could activate the extended assignments. No doubt this is purely a personal preference though.

Overall, I'm pleased with the build quality of both the mouse and keyboard but I miss one thing...the 4-button functionality of the Intellimouse Optical. The Wireless Optical Mouse is a standard 2-button plus wheel mouse. I've come to so often use the 3rd/4th buttons of the Intellimouse Optical for browser forward/back operations, that I'll miss that feature a lot. At the moment I'm debating returning this item for that very reason....4 keys on a mouse are just that much more efficient to use, especially once one has begun to use them often. If Microsoft would package the Intellimouse Wireless Explorer mouse with this Wireless Optical Keyboard Pro, they'd have a real winner. That's the only reason I don't give this combo 5 stars. At 4 stars it's still a winner but one that just doesn't quite cross the finish line with quite the flair it could have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally got rid of those wires!
Review: I've only had the setup in use for two days so far, but it installed flawlessly (software installed first, then the hardware). Works great. I had the old original MS natural keyboard, and the improvements in this generation are for the better in my opinion...the larger delete key, and the additional key labels help a lot, as do the one-touch function keys. Since I've only had this a couple days I can't comment on battery life or reliability yet. I'm not disappointed so far and would definitely buy it again.


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