My computer came with a Microsoft IntelliMouse.  This mouse has no less than 5 buttons, which is at least 2 to 3 more than anyone needs.  But my primary complaint (yes I'm complaining--tough) is with the so-called "thumb buttons" (shown here highlighted in orange) which by default are enabled and mapped to of all things, internet browser functions, namely the "Back" and "Forward" buttons on the browser.  Though I can appreciate that someone might choose to define them that way, I find those choices as default settings bizarre, shortsighted, and incredibly annoying...

In the full swing of the browser wars Microsoft began trying to convince everyone (unsuccessfully) that Internet Explorer (IE) was an integral part of the OS, as opposed to a separate application. That's complete twaddle of course, but Microsoft went to great lengths to try and make it true.

We all suddenly found that new installations of Windows would automatically put an IE shortcut on your desktop, and not a normal shortcut either... a special one that was hard to delete.  Windows Explorer, the tool used to navigate through your files and directories, suddenly started sporting browser buttons and could view webpages just like directories.  Just so much muddying of the waters so Microsoft could defend strong-arming retailers of hardware into bundling IE with their OS, so as to ensure market dominance over third party browser manufacturers (like NetScape).

So to my mind, the "browser forward" and "browser back" buttons on the mouse by default, are just another bit of maneuvering by Microsoft, still trying to sell an argument that nobody is buying.  I mean come on, who thinks of the MOUSE as part of their web browser?  Why not make those buttons be like "shift-click" and "control-click", or "double-click" and "click and hold"?  In this particular case, it wouldn't be nearly so annoying if it wasn't such a bad idea to begin with.

You see, if you are on a discussion group writing a post, or a blog writing a comment, or writing a blog article in your browser, and you click the browser's back button, you lose your work.  It doesn't matter if you then hit the forward button again... it's gone.  And the spot where Microsoft chose to put these "thumb" buttons is agonizingly close to where you place your thumb when you grab the mouse.  DUH!  So every time you reach for your mouse while writing a blog article, comment, or forum post, you risk losing your work.  Mind-boggling stupidity.

Unfortunately, though my computer shipped with an IntelliMouse, the IntelliMouse control panel was not included.  So I could not reprogram the mouse buttons.

Last night after spending a couple hours writing an article about statistics, as I was going to click the "post" button on my blog control panel, I accidentally thumbed the "back" button on my mouse and lost the whole article.  I was incredibly pissed because I thought the analysis was interesting, but I had no desire to write the whole thing again.  Which is why the article "Babes and Statistics" basically turned into a short two or three line post.

Fortunately today I found I was able to download the IntelliMouse software for free from Microsoft and with it undo their inane default settings.  So now the thumb buttons on my mouse blessedly do NOTHING when I push them.  Which is as it should be because they are too prone to be accidentally pushed to be useful for anything else.  It's a real testament to Microsoft's quality procedures that I am happy when their products do nothing.

So, and I mean this sincerely, thanks for nothing Microsoft!