Customer Reviews

Microsoft Trackball Explorer

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Sleek, silver and glowing - I have this space-age thing on my desk that delights me. It's improved the position of my hand so that my CTS has ebbed, though I still need a wrist rest and frequent breaks. All the buttons, including the wheel button, are programmable, bringing the total of moving gizmos to 5 buttons a trackball and a wheel. This alone is reason to fiddle endlessly with it, trying to come up with the best combination of programming to suit the natural play of your hand. If anything, there are too many possible combinations of function, and you may spend a week or more playing with this puppy before you find a workable group of settings.

The functions are smooth, and reasonably reliable, depending on the position your hand takes. I find the left-hand buttons difficult to hit correctly with my thumb, thanks to some nerve damage so I reprogrammed them until I found a way that was comfortable for me to work. I strongly suggest you do the same.

If you're running Win XP, you'll have to d/l the newest Intellipoint drivers, but that's not a big deal. Installation is a snap with Plug 'n' Play.

I never thought I'd find anything that pleased me as much as my old Logitech trackball, but I have to say that I think this one might do it. Time will tell. But right from the start, I found it worth the investment.

I bought this a few years ago...being used to the average two button mouse it took a little while getting used to. However, now I won't use anything else! I wish they came out with a cordless version. It fits my hand so well and the buttons that were a little awkward to use at first are now so easy to use and well placed. I scroll and click with my thumb and move the wheel with my forefinger. The other two programmable buttons to the right of the wheel are clicked with your middle and ring fingers, and the whole device fits my hand like a glove. You barely have to move your fingers to use the buttons, once you get used to the layout and you can even place the trackball horizontally or diaganolly in front of you (which I do) - which is why I don't ever feel "awkward" the way one of the reviewers does. If you place the trackball vertically with the cord facing north, you will ulitmately have a fatigued hand. But after getting used to the layout of this trackball, you don't have to keep it vertical anymore and can place it any way you like. Once placed in a position that is comfortable, it is so natural to operate that using a mouse again is so uncomfortable. If you have the patience to try this out, I highly recommend it. I haven't been able to find a cordless trackball that even comes close to this...pity!

EDIT FROM ORIGINAL POST: It is now September of 2009 and I still have - and love - my Trackball Explorer! I wish I could find another, but currently Amazon has a new one from a seller for $699. That's about $650 over my price range. My Trackball has been dropped a million times and although it's starting to fizz out on me every now and again, it's been with me for 10 years. I don't want to part with it but I think it's been dropped one too many times. All the buttons work and the ball still rolls as smooth as the day I bought it, but the circuits/wires inside the base short out if I bump them in a certain way, so I try to keep it as still as possible now. This little old man still has spunk in him though. I'm considering a Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan next. It's the closest I can find to my Trackball Explorer. I contacted Microsoft and asked them to reconsider manufacturing these again. They told me (paraphrased here) "Sorry, but no." Well, Logitech, the (track)ball is in your court now, please make one almost exactly like this!

I have been using a MS Trackball Explorer for several years. It has saved me as I have carpel tunnel and cervical damage and if I use a mouse for any length of time my hand pain increases. (I also use a Natural Pro Keyboard).

I can't believe that some people are upset and condemn it because the device has a short cord!

The trackball connects by USB and the movements are seamless. Any trackball is going to get dirty but this one is so easy to clean. All I do is pop out the ball, remove the dust or whatever from the three points the ball rotates on, wipe the ball with a tissue and it is as good as new. I would say that the contours are not ideal (nor could they be) as it seems the contours are better fit for me if the device were mounted about 8 inches higher than my keyboard tray. As it is, it causes my wrist to drop and it is uncomfortable in that respect, but using the two right buttons to navigate online (back and forward) is a total breeze and makes going through pages very fast and comfortable.

Intellipoint software allows you to control almost every aspect of its movement, which makes it even better.

Personally I like where the scroll button is as well as the buttons for right and left clicks. I think I am going to try to devise some sort of mount so it will elevate the rear by about 15 degrees or so. This way my hand will go forward and there will be even less strain.

I used Logictech trackballs in the past and I did not like them. With all its faults, and there are some, this trackball is for me by far the best, the easiest to navigate online with, and extremely precise in terms of cursor movement. It does slide around a bit and to solve this I put a small piece of that foamy rubbery shelf liner stuff under it--and where my wrist rests on the keyboard tray--and it works perfectly.

It is simply a matter of using your own ingenuity to make something that is already superb even better!

I've had a trackball for 3 years now. I have never known such quick response and ease of mousing. My previous mouse was $20, and I wanted to buy something a little bit nicer. The Trackball Explorer exceeded my expectations. Constantly cleaning my old trackball was a pain. With the optical trackball, no moving parts means no cleaning!

It has 4 buttons (2 of which can be programmed by the software included, they default to forward and back commands for Internet Explorer), and a scroll wheel that also serves as a button.

It also looks cool. It has a nice greyis metalic color to it. Another plus is the fact that its nifty ergonomic design makes this mouse comfortable to use.

Installation was easy. Plug it in, install the drivers, install the software that comes with the mouse, and you're done!

I've had my Trackball Explorer for a couple of months now, and it has performed flawlessly. I mainly use it with my laptop, it works well on any surface because it is a trackball, which does not operate like a mouse, you control the cursor by moving the ball with your fingers, instead of moving the entire device. The trackball itself is very large, a change from previous products that I've owned, which is a great thing, it allows you to control the pointer with virtually all of your fingers.

The button placement couldn't be better, although it took a little bit of practice to get used it, as the right-click and left-click buttons are activated via thumb, but after the learning curve, smooth sailing from there. The back and forward buttons are also a plus, they allow you to browse through you browser's history with a click.

I also *love* the wheel. Scrolling through documents and webpages couldn't be easier, it also acts as a button when pressed, which activates a trackball-controlled scroll, very useful for longer documents.

The Trackball Explorer comes with Microsoft's IntelliPoint software, which means this trackball is *highly* configurable. You can change the action of each of the buttons, the lines scrolls by the wheel and *much* more.

Microsoft has created an excellent product here, very configurable, durable and precise! A recommendation for veteran trackball users and *every* mouse user.

This is pretty much the perfect trackball I had been looking for. It feels comfortable whether your hand is small or big (I have medium-sized hands myself). The only minor downside is it's for right-handed folks only, but most southpaws should find it easy to use, too.

The best thing about the optical trackball is you never have to clean the inside. I've been using it for a couple months now and the movement is always precise. The buttons are responsive. Even though it's pricy, I think the Trackball Explorer is worth every penny.

(For $20 cheaper, you can get the Microsoft Trackball Optical, but I don't like rolling the ball with my thumb.)

As an avid computer user, gamer, and professional Web Programmer, I spend a LOT of time on my computer. Over time, I've resorted to Trackballs because of the strain a regular mouse puts on the wrist. I had purchased and fallen in love with my logitech optical trackball, and thought that was the end of it.

However, recently I started working in "Maya", a 3d graphics rendering program that REQUIRES a 3 button mouse. I was distraught because I loved my optical trackball so much, but it only had two buttons. All the other 3+ button trackballs I could find were not optical, which I had tried before. non-optical mice have a tendancy to force the cursor into perfectly horizontal or vertical motions, and makes fine motion graphics impossible.

As for optical trackballs with more than 3 buttons, most place the ball under the thumb, which is beyond akward to use. So after much searching both online and in stores, I found this mouse.

The price tag made me a little weary at first...not what I'm used to dishing out for something as simple as a mouse. But I decided it was worth giving at least a TRY. so I bought it and took it home.

My machine running XP recognized it without problem, though the extra buttons didn't work right until I installed the software that came with it... To try and do multiple buttons with just the thumb proved impossible.

Overall, I'm glad I took a chance on this mouse, and I'm looking to soon purchase a second one for my work machine. I would highly reccomend this mouse to anyone that needs the multiple buttons on an optical trackball. If you don't, while it is nice, there are less expensive options.

I've been using trackballs since they came out and have tried out a good number of them. The MS Trackball Explorer tops all of them. I believe this so much, that I own four of them and will likely buy more of them.

It's set up extremely ergonomically for right hand users. Just plop your hand on top of the trackball and your fingers are already over almost all of the buttons. Left click being directly under your thumb, the scroll wheel being just to the right of it and two of the extra buttons being under your pinky and ring fingers. With your pointer and middle fingers on the trackball, you're set to go. The only button that takes any effort whatsoever is the default right click button, which is located just over the scroll wheel. You just lift the thumb a centimeter and then click it. If you need to use right click frequently, it may not be in an ideal location for you.

However, the configuration software makes swapping out button configurations simple. My layout changes the pinky button to right click and the ring and secondary thumb buttons to back and forwards, respectively. It ends up working out very well for me. As far as I know, the package doesn't include any software for linux or mac machines. Then again, I'm not sure I could really expect a microsoft product to support macs or linux.

As a heavy computer gamer, I can tell you that the responsiveness of this trackball is top-notch and unlike all thumb-based trackballs, you're at no disadvantage as compared to a mouse-user.

The buttons are pretty damn durable. I have one trackball explorer that I bought around 2001 and it's only now starting to wear out. It's still responsibe after 4 years of heavy use, but the buttons are starting to feel mushy. In fact, I took one of my Trackball Explorers to Iraq when I deployed there last year. While everything was feeling the pain of an extremely sandy environment, this thing kept on working.

If it has any faults, it's not laid out very well for left handed users and that the trackball gets dirty fairly often. Our fingers aren't as clean as we think they are, it seems. At any rate, the ball comes out easily, and cleaning it involves sweeping the inside of the ball with a finger and then wiping off the ball on a shirt or something. It takes about 10-15 seconds about every three days or so for heavy users that eat at the keyboard, your mileage may vary.

All in all, this is the best input device of its kind that I've ever used and I'm disappointed to see that Microsoft isn't still cranking them out.

This thing is excellent! I bought it to use with games since you don't have to worry about small mouse pads, since the base stays put, and the ball rotates. Also, the cord doesn't catch on things annoyingly for the same reason. Lastly, the two extra buttons give more versatility, and literally, at-your-fingertips control while gaming. I have not had to clean this thing at all since I bought it, and contrary to what that other reviewer said, the ball doesn't fall out. Maybe she got a faulty model, or she shook it while it was upside down, but there are small locks on the optical part that the ball pushes in, then when it's past them, they come back out creating a "lock".

It works by capturing an image 1,500 times per second, and moving the cursor based on the "movement path" of the trackball's texture. Therefore, just out of curiousity I even moved my finger around over the optical sensor and it stilled moved. Of course, that's useless but interesting info.

Bottom line, if you like trackballs, and are looking to buy one, buy this one!

Sometime in the mid-nineties, I purchased my first trackball - one of the mechical Logitechs - and I haven't looked back to conventional mice since then. One of the things I really didn't enjoy was having to frequently clean the little rascals, though, a problem with any mechanical mousing instrument. With the advent of optical devices, this problem is almost completely wiped out. I have to clean this trackball every several weeks, but clean-up is a complete snap - turn it upside down, let the ball fall out, and run a clean cloth around the inside of the chamber. Voila. Occasionally, cat hairs get stuck in the small cut-out at the bottom, but are easily blown out. Oh happy day!

This is a 5-button mouse, though in all honesty, I don't tend to use the two buttons on the outside very often - fortunately, they're out of the way enough not to interfere with daily use. But, if you "grip" the mouse, rather than rest your hand upon it, you might bump into those two buttons more often. They can be deprogrammed, though.

The two main buttons for left- and right-click are well-placed, and my thumb doesn't get tired, even in the midst of a "Deux Ex"-fest, blasting the living daylights out of everything in sight. The wheel (which also functions as a "middle" button) is nicely-textured for excellent ease of use. Ergonomically shaped, this mouse has yet to cause me any carpal miseries.

The finger trackball took me a bit of time to get used to, as I have always used thumb trackballs in the past. I've found, though, that the finger ball is much more comfortable; with the thumb trackball, a lot of tension and stress would accumulate in that digit, and I hadn't even fully realized it until it went away.

I spent hours and hours at a time in front of my computer, and I have major complaints about this device. The only thing I truly wish were different is that I wish it had a longer cord; as it stands, it's stretched completely taut, and frequently scootches back underneath the overhang above my keyboard tray. Other than that, I'm very satisfied with this product.