Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0- White Box ( BX2-00004 )

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 20 x 10 x 4 inches ; 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BVB5FW
• Item model number: BX2-00004
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 13, 2006

Product Description

The Wireless Optical Desktop gives you easy, ergonomic comfort. The customizable My Favorites keys, Media Center, and Hot Keys give you one-touch access, and the wireless optical mouse has a Tilt Wheel for worry-free accuracy. Features * Zoom Slider--Easily zoom in on pictures, maps, documents, and Web pages—without taking your hand off the keyboard. * Comfort Curve design--Designed by ergonomic experts for enhanced comfort and style, the Comfort Curve Design keyboard helps your hands rest in a more natural position. * Tilt Wheel Technology--The entire wheel tilts to deliver smooth, accurate performance as you scroll horizontally and vertically through documents and Web pages. * Three times the battery life--Work longer without interruption. New optical technology helps extend battery life to as much as three times that of competing products. * Smart Receiver--Work wirelessly without bothersome interference. Smart technology automatically notifies you when interference is present, and then helps you reduce it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second Purchase, January 14, 2006

By 

C. Larsen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0- White Box ( BX2-00004 ) (Personal Computers)

Bought the first one for me and I loved it. I have arthritis in my fingers & knuckles and I find the key arrangement more natural. I've tried, the other styles with the keyboard separated more with more exaggerated angles and they seem to be about as unnatural has a standard straight keyboard. Bought this one for my wife and saved $20 through Amazon as compared the purchase of mine through Walmart. Really like the hot and programmable keys. Wish there was a written manual included for the key board. The mouse is straight forward except for the convenience of being able to move from one side of keyboard to the other with no hassle. I do have interference between our two mouses now. They are located about 8 feet apart. I'm still trying to change channels to find a setting where they will not interfere with one and another.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for a heavy user, March 7, 2006

By 

Stephen Yeoh (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0- White Box ( BX2-00004 ) (Personal Computers)

I'm a touch typist, typing at 60+ wpm and found this keyboard very frustrating. It seemed to miss letters. If I try to enter multiple ctrl key sequences, it wouldn't take them, recognizing the first ctrl key, but not the subsequent one. I'd have to release the ctrl key after the first selection and re-press it for the second one to register.

I also had trouble with multiple selections using ctrl-click to select them. I'd start selecting a few items and then all of a sudden, I'd see only one item selected.

I'm running flat panel monitors. If I put the receiver on the desk, but behind the flat panels, the keyboard would not work (total distance from receiver was about 12 inches). The receiver had to be in front of the monitors.

The Mouse software would not install on Windows XP 64-bit. Note that MS does not say this driver is 64-bit compatible. Kind of disappointing that their own product doesn't support Windows properly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Questionable quality at best, February 17, 2007

By 

C. Burdick (Apex, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0- White Box ( BX2-00004 ) (Personal Computers)

While the price was great for the product, you do get what you pay for.

Pros:

-it works :\ mostly

Cons:

Software: The software it's bundled with is mediocre. The media buttons work, but I had problems with the zooming, and especially assigning keys. It allows you to customize where certain keys took you (including webpages,) but no matter how many times I tried, it still opened Outlook when I specifically told it to open Gmail. In other words, the software SUCKS. In fact, when I formatted my computer and reinstalled everything, the only things I loaded from the included CD were the drivers, none of the software. I recommend you do the same.

Keyboard: The keyboard sucks too. It feels fine ergonomically, but it's a bit loud, and the custom keys don't work with the software (read above.) The most annoying thing though, is that the keys get stuck a lot. I'll hold the backspace key down to delete a sentence, but it keeps on going after I release the key to delete the next few words. Letter keys get stuck too, and quite frequently it misses keystrokes, so if you don't look at the screen when typing, you have to go back and type that part over again. It's really annoying.

Mouse: Maybe it's a Microsoft thing, because this is the second MS mouse I've had that doesn't track correctly on anything but blank paper. It's the weirdest thing. No mousepad works, and neither does my desktop surface. I had to use the back cardboard surface of one of the yellow paper pad things.

All in all, even for the price I don't recommend this Desktop set. It will end up driving you nuts. I ended up throwing mine away and getting a Logitech, it's much better. Trust me on this, go get a Logitech instead. You won't regret it.