X-Mouse for WIndows Vista & Win 7 Doesn't Raise Window
Wed, 2010/02/03 - 23:10 | 
admin I can't take any credit for any of the following steps but hopefully this will provide you with some x-mouse capability. (credits are below) I mainly am posting this because I hate reloading windows, then waste time digging through a bunch of sites until I find the "right" x-mouse feature I want: Focus follows mouse, but doesn't raise window... ever... I am purely blogging this for my own records.
I love the way True X-Mouse works, where you HAVE to click the title bar to grab focus of the window, but it is no longer being maintained. (Why hasn't someone in the OpenSource community created something similar?!??) On the flip side, I never could stand the auto copy function... shut that crap off!! I'll press ctrl+c & ctrl+v when I need to!
Anywho, off my soapbox, the following steps are for a "follow mouse, but don't raise window" style of x-mouse:
Step #1:
- Open regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Edit UserPreferenceMask value to be 9F 3E 07 80 12 00 00 00
[You should only have to modify the first pair]
Step #2:
- Also in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Add ActiveWndTrkTimeout as a new DWORD value, edit the new value and change 'Base' to Decimal and put in 150 as the 'Value Data'.You will notice that by default, Windows has ActiveWndTrackTimeout as the default value. Changing this value won't do you any good. Other posts suggest renaming it, I recommend creating a new DWORD value with ActiveWndTrkTimeout and having them both.
[Adding and setting this value is time in milliseconds that it takes for the focus to change. To avoid some issues with the taskbar I recommended using a value like 150 or so (75 works best, especially with windows 7), but if you'd like to have a different delay before the window loses focus, set it to whatever you like.]
Step #3:
- Log off and log back in
All credits for the above 3 steps go to: sevenforums.com
Another x-mouse post can be found on: www.jan-olof-lindqvist.se
And... yet another at: http://technotes.hdgconsulting.com
Note: Make sure you take note of ActiveWndTrkTimeout as opposed to ActiveWndTrackTimeout...
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Mouse Hover Functionality
Thanks for consolidating this information - I've found it scattered about here and there.
One thing, though, the actual registry entry is "ActiveWndTrackTimeout" (note 'Track', not 'Trk').
ActiveWndTrkTimeout vs ActiveWndTrackTimeout
I would love to sit here and say: "Here's the difference between ActiveWndTrkTimeout vs. ActiveWndTrackTimeout.", but the honest truth is, I don't know! I can't find ANYTHING online that points to what exactly the difference is between the two. (Either that or I don't have the patience to look for it...) regardless, the only conclusive speculation I've come up with, is that "Track" was used in Vista where-as "Trk" is used in Windows 7. Anybody know of any clarification between the two from the good ol' M$ on this one?
Moving on, I do know for a fact that using "Track" does absolutely nothing when it comes to focusing a window. Set Trk to 0 and the focus is instant. Set Trk to 1000 and it will take one second for the window to focus. Keep in mind, this is not "raising the window". ActiveWndTrkTimeout is the setting for how long it takes for the window to actually grab focus after the mouse has been placed over it.
Thanks for your post. I
Thanks for your post.
I downloaded UltimateTweaker (TweakUI for Win 7), and was shocked when it didn't have XMouse like the xp version of tweakui
Your post was awesome, and it works better than my xp system!
It even responds to xmouse across the multi-pane browsing in firefox. I still need to check on namoroka, but I see no reason why it wouldn't.
Thanks,
-Steven