Help! New Win7 notebook is driving me crazy!!!

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Hi all,
My new Win7 notebook arrived yesterday. This is my 1st notebook. I have been using desktops since before the millennium. Decided it was time to get more modern. Well, after the excitement of putting the battery in and waiting for Win7 to load, I decided to look through the menus. YIKES!!! This is my first experience with a touch pad. There are many unusual things happening.
The most confounding is scrolling through a menu and stopping to read all available menu items!!! It seems if i stop for a few seconds to think &/or look, the system just decides to open whatever the mouse pointer was sitting on. WOW!!! Closing this unwanted menu then shuts off all previous items. I am describing specifically, scrolling through the start menu to look for an item to use. Stopping anywhere to look over the available items, then after just a few seconds, whatever the pointer was on opens. Trying to avoid this by moving the pointer off menu while looking over, just causes the entire menu to shut down after a few seconds!!!
Similar things happen while scrolling through windows explorer.
Anybody got any ideas???
All comments sincerely appreciated.

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Is this your first experiance with win7 or vista (were you running XP until now)?

I think I would agree that learning a touchpad and win7 at the same time may be a bit overwhelming. I would suggest that you get a usb (or wireless mouse) just for getting started with Win7. After you are comfortable with how the menus work, you can work on getting comfortable with navigating with a touchpad.

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The mouse setting may be set on single click and you are use to double clicking.
Go to the Control panel, and then the mouse and change the clicking to double clicking.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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You can customize the Start Menu to eliminate this behaviour. Right Click on the Start orb. Select properties>Start Menu tab>Customize. Scroll down until you see “Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer” and UNcheck it.

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Is this your first experiance with win7 or vista (were you running XP until now)?

It is my first experience with Win7.
I have been running WinXP PRO SP2. I started XP with the very first batch of XP discs released way back when.

I would suggest that you get a usb (or wireless mouse) just for getting started with Win7.

I intend to do this, but not until the weekend.

The mouse setting may be set on single click and you are use to double clicking.

I can’t seem to find this setting.

You can customize the Start Menu to eliminate this behaviour. Right Click on the Start orb. Select properties>Start Menu tab>Customize. Scroll down until you see “Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer” and UNcheck it.

Bingo!!! This solved about 70% of my problem.

The other 30% is unfamiliarity with touchpad. I am sure my fingers want to feel the mouse and click afterward. This doesn’t work with a touchpad!!! If you feel it, you have made a selection. Also, my fingers inherently want to rest on the mouse surface. Inherently, this also doesn’t work.

Between the 2, I believe my problem is solved. Thanks to all who contributed.
And now, on to explore Win7 64 bit.

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Once you get a wireless mouse (I assume your laptop is bluetooth capable) Many more of your fussy problems will be solved. Although I have had laptops for 1 1/2 years now, I would be frustrated just using the touchpad. The mouse my wife and I both chose is the MS Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000.We both love this mouse. It runs about $50 at Best Buy. You may find it cheaper elsewhere, but it is definitely worth the money. It fits the hand wonderfully and works fabulously. We purchased several AAA rechargable batteries and a charger so we always have charged batteries available although the batteries last several weeks each. Definitely worth checking on.

I would also check out How to Geekfor hundreds of tips and tricks to customize Win 7. It will teach you how to use Win 7 in a much faster timeframe. Have fun!

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In Control Panel, check the mouse hardware settings. There might be one for “tapping” which is when you tap the touchpad to click. You should be able to turn that feature off, which isn’t a bad idea at first. Flip it back on once you get more comfortable with the touchpad….maybe you’ll like it, maybe not.

In my experience, a LOT of users have trouble and feel frustrated with the tapping feature. Personally, I simply can’t use it, no matter how I try and practice I end up clicking way too much. I’ve also seen some older new computer users give up on the computer entirely because the tapping is too sensitive.

But get a mouse anyway. I have a trackball attached to my laptop, which I use on a desk quite a bit.

-John

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My Sony laptop has an Alps touchpad which is a pretty common brand of touchpad. The software for the touchpad is available through Control Panel/Mouse. This opens the mouse properties window which allows you to set most of the functionality the way you want it. Once you have a mouse, it’s functionality is incorporated into the mouse properties window as well. One of he options under the properties is to display the icon in the taskbar. This provides a handy easy to find place to open the mouse properties window.

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Once you get a wireless mouse (I assume your laptop is bluetooth capable)

I am not sure if it is bluetooth capable or not. It is an Acer notebook. They only supply a generic user manual. In it they state, ” not all features described are in all models”!!! Anyway, I temporarily purchased the MS 3000, which is wireless. It works fine.
My opinion after comparing the touchpad to the wireless mouse favors the wireless significantly. My touchpad seems adjusted way too sensitive. I have to barely touch that pad, sometimes seemingly just get close and it thinks it has been touched.
However the new mouse is very excellent and problem free.

I would also check out How to Geek for hundreds of tips and tricks to customize Win 7.

Actually, I do read How to Geek daily. It is one of several of my daily reads. Unfortunately, until today I haven’t been paying attention to Win7 notes, because Win7 is new to me. I now have 2 new folders for info. One is “notebook”. The other is “win7”. I am starting to save pertinent notes in them.

My Sony laptop has an Alps touchpad which is a pretty common brand of touchpad. The software for the touchpad is available through Control Panel/Mouse.

My notebook is Acer. Until yesterday I could not find specific info in the control panel, just generic settings. What I discovered was, in the control panel under the device Settings tab, if i double click the touchpad item, a whole new window opens with the specific settings for this touchpad. In there is sensitivity & other neat things. My touchpad is Synaptics V 7.0. Although it is interesting, I think I will just stick with the newly installed wireless mouse.

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I am not sure if it is bluetooth capable or not. It is an Acer notebook. They only supply a generic user manual. In it they state, ” not all features described are in all models”!!! Anyway, I temporarily purchased the MS 3000, which is wireless. It works fine.
My opinion after comparing the touchpad to the wireless mouse favors the wireless significantly. My touchpad seems adjusted way too sensitive. I have to barely touch that pad, sometimes seemingly just get close and it thinks it has been touched.
However the new mouse is very excellent and problem free.

Actually, I do read How to Geek daily. It is one of several of my daily reads. Unfortunately, until today I haven’t been paying attention to Win7 notes, because Win7 is new to me. I now have 2 new folders for info. One is “notebook”. The other is “win7”. I am starting to save pertinent notes in them.

My notebook is Acer. Until yesterday I could not find specific info in the control panel, just generic settings. What I discovered was, in the control panel under the device Settings tab, if i double click the touchpad item, a whole new window opens with the specific settings for this touchpad. In there is sensitivity & other neat things. My touchpad is Synaptics V 7.0. Although it is interesting, I think I will just stick with the newly installed wireless mouse.

The mouse is so much easier to use for those of us moving from a conventional desktop set up. I can use both, but much prefer the mouse. If the wireless mouse works fine, then you must have a bluetooth capable PC. Have fun.

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One of the most useful things in Win7 is the search box off the icon on the bottom left of the screen. Just type in a topic (such as Mouse settings) and up will come a list with more information than you need.

Fred

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One of the most useful things in Win7 is the search box off the icon on the bottom left of the screen. Just type in a topic (such as Mouse settings) and up will come a list with more information than you need.

Fred’ That’s really cool. I just tried it. Kept me preoccupied for about 30 minutes.
Even changed some power settings from there.
Thanks,
Michael

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