Computer Tip – WizMouse

As you may or may not know, I am a software junkie and love to find new and helpful software utilities. And if they are free, that is always a bonus! 

My latest find is WizMouse. What this utility does is enable you to scroll non-focused application windows with your mouse wheel. That is the technical explanation, but in non-technical terms, with WizMouse running in the background you can scroll any window by putting the mouse cursor over the application and spinning your mouse wheel (instead of having to click on it and redirect the focus to that application).

It is just as straightforward as it sounds, just install WizMouse and it will run in the background. Although at first glance it may seem trivial to have to click on a window before scrolling in it, after a short period of using this amazing little utility I’m amazed the feature isn’t built right into Windows—it’s a Godsend for anyone who uses dual monitors, as I do. I don’t know how many times before I had WizMouse I would move from one open program to another, begin to do something and realize I was still in the wrong program!

Another bonus over similar utilities is that for the odd or vintage program that doesn’t support mouse based scrolling, WizMouse converts the commands from the mouse wheel into scroll commands. What it does in this case is convert the mouse pointer movement into scrolling.

The program’s icon in the system tray stores various settings of this application, allowing you to change them. You can easily define the number of lines to scroll, or opt to start the program along with Windows startup. There may be the odd application where, WizMouse does not convert mouse moments correctly, but it is still a good tool all in all.

WizMouse is freeware and is only compatible with Windows operating systems for now and does not work under Linux or Mac OS. The new version now supports titling mouse wheels, expanding its compatibility with the majority of the available computer mice.