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I am on a Thinkpad T480s running Windows 10 Enterprise version 20H2. The Trackpoint (aka "UltraNav") device (the red nub between the G, H, and B keys) is apparently manufactured by ELAN (implying it isn't Synaptics). Last things first, I do not use the touchpad at all.

There are drivers installed for the Trackpoint device, as evident by presence of "ELAN Input Device For WDF" entry under "Mice and other pointing devices" and others I can't necessarily attribute to the Trackpoint in particular, in Device Manager. For reference, the "Driver Details" tab lists driver files in the "C:\Program Files\Elantech", with names starting with "ETD". There are two processes running that I should also attribute to the device operation, these are "ETD Control Center" (ETDCtrl.exe) and "ETD Control Center Helper" (ETDCtrlHelper.exe).

The "Cursor speed" slider value in "Mouse settings" in the [new] control panel, is all the way to the right, at 20. In "Pointer options" tab in the "Mouse Properties" window opened by the "Additional mouse options" link/button, the pointer speed is also all the way to the right at "Fast" and "Enhance pointer precision" is unchecked (as it gave me an extra perceived sensitivity).

I also have a "ThinkPad" tab under the aforementioned "Mouse Properties" window, and in the area named "Trackpoint" there, the "Sensitivity" slider is also all the way at the right edge at "Light".

The resulting sensitivity allows me to use the lightest of touches to operate the cursor, but it's not enough -- I am still strained in the forearms and fingers just after an hour of work because the cursor doesn't move as rapidly as I want it to. I don't care much about precision necessarily, not as much as I seem to care for combination of sensitivity, speed or acceleration of the cursor -- my use of the cursor is "coarse" as the buttons I operate tend to be big enough I probably could get away with super-pixel precision to sacrifice precision for movement speed. I am quite used to the device in the sense I am able to point at UI elements I want.

I understand that the device operates on pressure which is probably measured internally in a way where conceivably I should be able to, in theory, squeeze much more pointer speed out of it but alas, the tilting tower of proprietary software I hope I don't need to reverse-engineer exactly.

How, if possible, can I increase either/all of sensitivity, speed, and acceleration of the cursor driven by the Trackpoint device? I can accept some loss of precision.

Robotnik
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Armen Michaeli
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1 Answers1

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Two thoughts:

  1. There are keyboards with trackpoint components, namely, from UHK or the TeX group (Shinobi) - for these trackpoints, you can achieve extreme sensitivity. (My monitor setup has 6360 pixels for width, and I don't feel forearm pain when navigating with a UHK keyaord. Yet, due to the positioning of the trackpoint module for UHK, my right index finger may suffer slightly.)
  2. This tool may be helpful - Mouse Speed Switcher - Easily Switch your mouse settings!. If it does not allow you to achieve the level of sensitivity you need out of the box, I assume you can reach out to the author to see if he can crank up the maximum mouse speed.
llinfeng
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