[ohkine]

I have a DeathAdder. The mouse itself (the hardware) is great. However, the software (the thing that really makes the mouse functional and configurable, which is what i thought i was paying for) is one of the most absurd and infuriating things i have ever had to deal with.

The configuration tool was designed in the vein of Steam — it requires an Internet connection to use it. At all. So before you can change the mouse settings, before the mouse will even LOAD its settings, you must create a Razer account and sign in to their online service through the tool. Only then will you be able to do anything with the mouse.

Also like Steam, there is an option to 'go offline', but it (perhaps unintentionally) doesn't seem to persist across sessions. So if you lose your connection and then you reboot the computer or the tool crashes (which is semi-frequent), you're back to where you started — a log-in prompt.

In addition to that, just from a usability perspective, the software is a disaster. It is a mass of grey-on-grey text, modal panes, near-full-screen sliders, and unexplained icons that i dread even thinking about using. In addition, the tool adds an ugly menu-bar icon that you can't get rid of, and once you install the software you can never close it — if you try to kill the tool or any of its background services, the entire thing will respawn. And just to give you that extra punch in the face, every time the tool starts (at boot or because one of its background services crashed) the giant black-and-green blob pops up on top of everything else. HEY, HEY, LOG IN TO YOUR MOUSE NOW

The scroll wheel is also apparently non-configurable on OS X, which is incredible because the default behaviour is some pre-Windows-95 we've-just-invented-scroll-wheels one-pixel-per-rotation insanity.

Lastly, every single update to the software requires that you reboot the entire machine.

I am not exaggerating when i say that i loathe using this god-damn mouse.

[shocks]

> HEY, HEY, LOG IN TO YOUR MOUSE NOW > Lastly, every single update to the software requires that you reboot the entire machine.

I only used the software once, a few years ago. I never logged into anything, it never required internet access, it never frequently updated and it never required a reboot.

You realise you don't need the software right? You can use the mouse perfectly without it. All the software lets you do is change the sensitivity (any good OS will let you do that), turn off the light, and program the "bottom" button. The light is under your hand 90% of the time and is off when your computer is off. It's a non-issue. The button the bottom is in an irritating position and I have never needed to use it. Sure, you could configure it to change sensitivity during a game (consider running and gunning vs. accurate sniping, perhaps?) but in reality no one is going to lift their mouse during an computer game to adjust the sensitivity.

> the default behaviour is some pre-Windows-95 we've-just-invented-scroll-wheels one-pixel-per-rotation insanity.

I have never experienced this problem. I don't know what you're talking about.

[kbd]

> All the software lets you do is change the sensitivity (any good OS will let you do that), turn off the light, and program the "bottom" button.

Except if you have a mouse like the Naga with more programmable buttons, they're all useless unless you use the software.

[tbob22]

Did you try something like X-Mouse Button Control?

It works great on my MX518 so I don't have to use the terrible Logitech software to configure the extra buttons. :)

[kbd]

Just looked that up. It's Windows-only and I use a Mac.

Regardless, I'm using the old, pre-Synapse drivers and they work ok.

[shocks]

Right, this is with regards to the DeathAdder only. :)

[ohkine]

> I only used the software once, a few years ago. I never logged into anything, it never required internet access, it never frequently updated and it never required a reboot.

They changed the software package literally less than a week after i bought the DeathAdder. Previously there was a specific 'DeathAdder' utility which, as you said, didn't require any online junk. But they completely removed it from existence once their port of the Windows software left beta or whatever.

I did try installing a copy of it that i had saved from before, but it seems that the act of installing the new software somehow broke the ability to use the old one, and i didn't want to spend hours fucking with some mouse driver.

> You realise you don't need the software right? You can use the mouse perfectly without it.

No, you can't. Or i can't, anyway. The default tracking is unusable to me (i like it much slower and smoother-scaling than most people seem to), and OS X's tracking slider didn't help. The only way to make it even tolerable was to use the software. Additionally, the buttons would be recognised incorrectly unless you told the software what you wanted them to behave as.

> I have never experienced this problem. I don't know what you're talking about.

Obviously i was being facetious, i'm sure it was actually one line per 'click' or whatever. Each click had far too much travel for that to be usable. Especially in comparison to the Magic Mouse and Mighty Mouse, with which you can near-instantaneously flick to the bottom of a long Web page.

If you didn't experience that, i guess i don't know what to tell you.

[jordanthoms]

Actually, all your OS sensitivity setting will do is change the scaling of the mouse, if you want to actually change the DPI you need their software

[veidr]

I don't have a DeathAdder, but I have had really a lot of mice over the years whose software (especially on OS X, but really just in general) utterly sucks.

At least through 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, and maybe going back longer than that, I've been using ControllerMate to program the functionality of all my mice (and some of my non-Apple keyboards). It's more of a general purpose visual programmer for input devices than a mouse driver, but works great for that limited use case.

It's a great help for the common case with mice of great hardware coupled with terrible software. I haven't installed third-party mouse software since I found it. Might be worth checking out. (Not affiliated, just find it useful...)

http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate

[darkstalker]

I got an Abyssus, it has all it's settings as hardware switches, so it doesn't require any software.

Most of the time installing mouse "drivers" for any vendor it's a waste of time, since the settings they provide should be adjusted in-game (default driver should give you a 1:1 sensitivity and 0 acceleration).

[kayoone]

I have been using DeathAdders since 2009 (2, one broke after 3 years) and think they are amazing, hands down. Never bothered to install their software, as they work perfect for me without.

[Moto7451]

Steermouse is a pretty good solution for mouse configuration.

http://www.plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/

[tbob22]

USB Overdrive works well too. X-Button Mouse Control is probably the best on Windows.