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Trackpad++: Alternate Trackpad Driver for BootCamp
- Thread starter V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r
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@Gav Mack: The suggestions are always the good thing. But I have no such topic, so please contact me via email with just anything - suggestions, critics, donations, etc. 
@onestyle1: I do apologize, but I can only confirm the download site DOES work - as an evidence, all these days the download counter at FileCluster have been incrementing daily, with "statistically usual" number of downloads.
@onestyle1: I do apologize, but I can only confirm the download site DOES work - as an evidence, all these days the download counter at FileCluster have been incrementing daily, with "statistically usual" number of downloads.
Would it be possible to add in a feature to get rid of the annoying zooming that happens when two finger scrolling in web pages? Most PC's are able to disable this setting, but there is no setting for Mac's and it's extremely annoying since pages constantly zoom in and out when I scroll. And it's not just IE, the same thing happens with Chrome as well.
Edit: Of course after posting this it stops after a few hours... I didn't even change any settings or reboot. Whatever I guess.
Edit: Of course after posting this it stops after a few hours... I didn't even change any settings or reboot. Whatever I guess.
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I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, but is the mid 2012 MBP non-Retina supported? The supported list shows "Mid 2012 / Retina". Not sure if that means Mid 2012 Retina only, or all mid 2012 models? I have the mid 2012 MBP 15" with Hi Res display at 1680x1050.
That said I just installed Trackpad++ yesterday. But I also installed Boot Camp for the first time yesterday, so I really don't have a reference point for comparison.
Boot Camp is a whole new environment for me. Is the first time I've run my MBP in a purely Windows environment, in my case Windows 8.1 Pro. You can't beat the Trackpad experience running OS X. So it is not fair to compare it with Boot Camp as the OS is completely different.
Is there a way to disable Trackpad++ without uninstalling it? Boot Camp is so new to me, I don't know how to make an A/B comparison.
First I am going to read the entire contents of this thread before asking Vladimir very many specific questions. Perhaps some of the previous comments, from this thread, will shed light on the best settings.
That said I just installed Trackpad++ yesterday. But I also installed Boot Camp for the first time yesterday, so I really don't have a reference point for comparison.
Boot Camp is a whole new environment for me. Is the first time I've run my MBP in a purely Windows environment, in my case Windows 8.1 Pro. You can't beat the Trackpad experience running OS X. So it is not fair to compare it with Boot Camp as the OS is completely different.
Is there a way to disable Trackpad++ without uninstalling it? Boot Camp is so new to me, I don't know how to make an A/B comparison.
First I am going to read the entire contents of this thread before asking Vladimir very many specific questions. Perhaps some of the previous comments, from this thread, will shed light on the best settings.
@skallal: Yes, every Macbook since Mid-2009 is supported. Stock Boot Camp trackpad driver simply emulates 2-button mouse with wheel, which gives you the following features: pointer movement, 1-finger tap or click, 1-finger dragging, 2-finger tap, 2-finger-with-click-hold dragging, 2-finger scrolling. That's all. Furthermore, even of those basic features, only pointer movement and emulated mouse button clicking are more or less free from defects. While drag is almost not usable at all (Apple inserts a huge delay on purpose for 1 finger and splits trackpad onto zones for 2 fingers), and scrolling is too sensitive yet non-accelerated.
Everything else is brought to you by Trackpad++: e.g. pinch-to-zoom, 3-finger drag, Windows 8 edge-gestures, fully customizable (assignable) 3- and 4-finger swipe up-down-left-right and tap gestures. Also, accidental input filtering, reworked scrolling, and more.
So, to answer your question, we cannot directly compare, because stock Boot Camp trackpad driver has no such features. It's like an attempt to compare a kitchen knife to a swiss army knife
Everything else is brought to you by Trackpad++: e.g. pinch-to-zoom, 3-finger drag, Windows 8 edge-gestures, fully customizable (assignable) 3- and 4-finger swipe up-down-left-right and tap gestures. Also, accidental input filtering, reworked scrolling, and more.
So, to answer your question, we cannot directly compare, because stock Boot Camp trackpad driver has no such features. It's like an attempt to compare a kitchen knife to a swiss army knife
Vladimir,
I'm having exactly the same issue as @kemajor. Whenever I try to 3-finger drag a window or an icon, it gets immediately tossed onto the top left corner of my screen and the only way I'm able to get it out of there is by leaving just one finger to continue the dragging.
This is obviously bothersome as in Excel, for example, when trying to select a range of cells the cursor gets blown away to the top left corner taking you to the beggining of the spreadsheet.
I have Windows 7 installed with Bootcamp on a late-2013 Macbook Pro 13" Retina Display. The reason why I installed Windows was so I could be able to program vba/macros for work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just wanted to post to let you know that kemajor isn't the only one getting this error.
Thank you very much. I'll gladly register & donate if this 3-finger dragging issue has a solution.
I'm having exactly the same issue as @kemajor. Whenever I try to 3-finger drag a window or an icon, it gets immediately tossed onto the top left corner of my screen and the only way I'm able to get it out of there is by leaving just one finger to continue the dragging.
This is obviously bothersome as in Excel, for example, when trying to select a range of cells the cursor gets blown away to the top left corner taking you to the beggining of the spreadsheet.
I have Windows 7 installed with Bootcamp on a late-2013 Macbook Pro 13" Retina Display. The reason why I installed Windows was so I could be able to program vba/macros for work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just wanted to post to let you know that kemajor isn't the only one getting this error.
Thank you very much. I'll gladly register & donate if this 3-finger dragging issue has a solution.
@MattNaddeo: Thank you very much for reporting. This is getting extremely strange, please let me explain why. A few days ago my friend purchased the Late-2013 Macbook Pro and loaded it with Windows 8.1. That gave me a superb chance to extensively test both the Power Plan Assistant and Trackpad++ on this new hardware. I personally had verified that both the PPA and T++ have no issues at all (and yes, 3-finger drag was working just fine). I don't think the difference is Windows 7 vs. 8.1, because I have a lot of the positive feedback from people who use Windows 7 on the rMBP, including the feedback on the 3-finger drag specifically.
Could you do a following test: please set screen resolution to 1280x800 or 1680x1050 and at the same time set DPI scaling to 100% or 125%. Could you let me know what is the behavior in this case? If you could also test the following combination: native resolution 2560x1600 and DPI scaling set to 125%, that would be perfect. Finally, I suggest to globally turn on "Windows XP style DPI scaling" and try again with native resolution and, say, custom 199% DPI. (You should be able to find this option in the custom DPI setting window: Control Panel\Display\Set Custom DPI link on the left pane).
Could you do a following test: please set screen resolution to 1280x800 or 1680x1050 and at the same time set DPI scaling to 100% or 125%. Could you let me know what is the behavior in this case? If you could also test the following combination: native resolution 2560x1600 and DPI scaling set to 125%, that would be perfect. Finally, I suggest to globally turn on "Windows XP style DPI scaling" and try again with native resolution and, say, custom 199% DPI. (You should be able to find this option in the custom DPI setting window: Control Panel\Display\Set Custom DPI link on the left pane).
Hello,
I've done some more testing since my last message. I've also upgraded my TP++ and PPA versions and the same problem is still happening.
What I have discovered is this: If the screen resolution/magnification is set at anything *except* 100% the issue happens. I tried 125, 150, 175, 200.
As a workaround I've reduced my screen resolution from 2880x1800 which is what I would like it to be set at down to a resolution that allows me to keep the magnification setting to 100%. It works correctly in this scenario. Obviously I would like to be able to use it at my desired configuration of 2880x1800 w/150% magnification.
I see that another user has posted regarding the same issue.
The other issue I mentioned about the mouse not moving fast enough to suit my ideal usability preferences you suggested turning on the turbo option. I already had that option on and it just isn't fast enough for me, especially at full retina resolution. As I stated before I typically set my mouse speeds at max or near max (with acceleration) depending on the mouse manufacturer/driver. I prefer it that way but when others try to use my computers they have to change it back to normal because they simply can't control the mouse at my desired speed. I guess I'd like you to enhance the product to allow for much faster speeds and the equivalent of "acceleration" where the mouse moves fast the faster i move the mouse (or in this case the fingers on the trackpad. This is a feature request and is not nearly as important as resolving the bug issue above.
The other thing I notice is that with PPA installed my keyboard backlights do not some on, ever, as far as I can tell. I really like to have my keyboard backlit so if you have any idea on that I'd really appreciate it.
Just as a reminder my Mac is a: Macbook Pro 15" (Retina) - Late 2013. As I mentioned earlier in this thread I do have VMWare Fusion 6 Pro installed into this Boot Camp partition since there are times I want to quickly use something from Windows but not have to boot directly into the Boot Camp Windows partition. However, since I've installed your utilities I have *not* attempted to run my BC Windows through VMWare Pro 6, I've only booted directly into the Windows partition.
Hopefully this information will help you resolve the 3 finger issue which is critical. As soon as this is resolved I will gladly pay for the product. In addition I hope you will consider my feature request regarding mouse speed and look into the keyboard backlighting issue.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you diagnose and/or resolve these issues.
Regards,
Kelly E Major
I've done some more testing since my last message. I've also upgraded my TP++ and PPA versions and the same problem is still happening.
What I have discovered is this: If the screen resolution/magnification is set at anything *except* 100% the issue happens. I tried 125, 150, 175, 200.
As a workaround I've reduced my screen resolution from 2880x1800 which is what I would like it to be set at down to a resolution that allows me to keep the magnification setting to 100%. It works correctly in this scenario. Obviously I would like to be able to use it at my desired configuration of 2880x1800 w/150% magnification.
I see that another user has posted regarding the same issue.
The other issue I mentioned about the mouse not moving fast enough to suit my ideal usability preferences you suggested turning on the turbo option. I already had that option on and it just isn't fast enough for me, especially at full retina resolution. As I stated before I typically set my mouse speeds at max or near max (with acceleration) depending on the mouse manufacturer/driver. I prefer it that way but when others try to use my computers they have to change it back to normal because they simply can't control the mouse at my desired speed. I guess I'd like you to enhance the product to allow for much faster speeds and the equivalent of "acceleration" where the mouse moves fast the faster i move the mouse (or in this case the fingers on the trackpad. This is a feature request and is not nearly as important as resolving the bug issue above.
The other thing I notice is that with PPA installed my keyboard backlights do not some on, ever, as far as I can tell. I really like to have my keyboard backlit so if you have any idea on that I'd really appreciate it.
Just as a reminder my Mac is a: Macbook Pro 15" (Retina) - Late 2013. As I mentioned earlier in this thread I do have VMWare Fusion 6 Pro installed into this Boot Camp partition since there are times I want to quickly use something from Windows but not have to boot directly into the Boot Camp Windows partition. However, since I've installed your utilities I have *not* attempted to run my BC Windows through VMWare Pro 6, I've only booted directly into the Windows partition.
Hopefully this information will help you resolve the 3 finger issue which is critical. As soon as this is resolved I will gladly pay for the product. In addition I hope you will consider my feature request regarding mouse speed and look into the keyboard backlighting issue.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you diagnose and/or resolve these issues.
Regards,
Kelly E Major
@kemajor: First, please let me clarify the situation regarding the Power Plan Assistant and keyboard backlight. Actually, this is the feature of Power Plan Assistant. Furthermore, it's top feature. The story is, absolutely most people had been irritated with keyboard backlight being forced on the maximum level every time they boot to Windows. I had been asked many times to fix this, and I have created Power Plan Assistant with this feature being one of its master features. Please note that the keyboard backlight is still controllable via top row keyboard keys, it just doesn't run at full brightness after you login to Windows. With Power Plan Assistant it shall gently dim to a zero level instead. If you prefer the keyboard backlight being set to max after you login to Windows, you can safely uninstall the Power Plan Assistant, as it's mandatory to install it only once, before the Trackpad++. To uninstall correctly, please quit the Power Plan Assistant first: right-click its tray battery icon and choose 'Exit'.
@MattNaddeo, @kemajor: Now about the Trackpad++ 3-finger drag. We are getting as close to locating the problem, as never before. I friend of mine who owns Late-2013 Retina Macbook Pro has agreed to sacrifice his perfectly working Windows 8.1 installation and is going to put Windows 7 instead. Thus, soon I will be able to personally install the Trackpad++ and observe the situation. As I indicated in the previous posts, on his Late-2013 rMBP the 3-finger drag feature works with any DPI scaling and any resolution - verified by me personally. But, verified only in Windows 8.1, which may not be the same as 8 and 7 in this regard.
@MattNaddeo, @kemajor: Now about the Trackpad++ 3-finger drag. We are getting as close to locating the problem, as never before. I friend of mine who owns Late-2013 Retina Macbook Pro has agreed to sacrifice his perfectly working Windows 8.1 installation and is going to put Windows 7 instead. Thus, soon I will be able to personally install the Trackpad++ and observe the situation. As I indicated in the previous posts, on his Late-2013 rMBP the 3-finger drag feature works with any DPI scaling and any resolution - verified by me personally. But, verified only in Windows 8.1, which may not be the same as 8 and 7 in this regard.
@ALL: End of the mystery. Here is why for some Retina Macbook Pro owners the Trackpad++ 3-finger drag works perfectly, while for some does not work at all. To make it working, please adjust the setting outlined with red so that it matches a provided screen shot and reboot. That's all. And now you can use any DPI, I verified 125%, 150%, 175%, 199%, 200%. It's important to note, Windows 8.1 is not affected, but Windows 8 and 7 are.
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I can vouch that the PPA keyboard backlighting issue exists. If i leave PPA running from bootup the backlight sometimes never comes on, even in darkness. When I close out of it comes on instantly and adjusts to light level.
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Sorry, just saw this message. I can understand from the aspect of dimming the keyboard backlight on a power saving setting. But, for a future release it might be possible to have it configurable for sensitivity. I like having PPA control my power options based on being plugged in versus battery operated. On battery I drop the screen brightness and disable backlighting the keyboard a lot. On plugged in, I like he brightness up and the backlight illuminated. I love how these products make using Windows on a mac much more enjoyable. I think the extra customization would make the products even better and that much closer to being something to pay more for
I appreciate the clarification regarding PPA and the backlit keyboard. I've never had a problem with it running at full brightness. The problem I (thought) I was having was there was *no* backlighting at all with PPA installed, even when I did not have the option to turn backlighting off "unchecked". As the other poster suggested I would also like to see more options in PPA to allow me to control the level of brightness relative to the room brightness. I almost never run my MBP without power connected and so I never want or use any energy saving options.
Also, I'm not sure if there has been any miscommunication regarding which version of Windows I'm running but to clarify I'm running Windows 8 Pro. I'm not running Windows 8.1 because, as far as I know, 8.1 is not officially supported by Apple with Boot Camp.
In addition I saw another post about making sure to check the option to use "Windows XP DPI Scaling". I have always unchecked that option because I did not know for sure exactly what that meant but I didn't think I wanted any sort of Windows XP settings/compatibility. It sounds like that may be the cause of the issues I've reported with 3 finger drag. I will test that and report back as soon as I can.
Also, do you have any thoughts on my suggestion/comments regarding faster mouse movement options in a future release?
If you could clarify one last item for me I would appreciate it. Is it safe to use my Boot Camp partition in VMWare Fusion 6 Pro or will I have problems with TP ++ or PPA installed? I boot directly into Windows 90% of the time but there are other times I'd like to use it as a VM. Will/Should this work without issues? Since installing TP++/PPA I haven't tried running it as a VM because I was uncertain about compatibility.
Finally, if the workaround using XP scaling resolves the 3 finger drag I will gladly be sending my payment plus some extra money to further support your efforts with these products and for your support here.
Thank You,
Kelly E Major
I've always held out hope that you'll support the Magic Trackpad (because your website says you don't support it "yet"). But it's been quite a while now.
Is there really any hope of this support coming soon?
One of the barriers for me using the Magic Trackpad in OS X is that it's nearly useless when I boot to Windows.
Is there really any hope of this support coming soon?
One of the barriers for me using the Magic Trackpad in OS X is that it's nearly useless when I boot to Windows.
I plan to use my Boot Camp partition from a Parallels Desktop VM. I think the Trackpad++ driver would be problematic. I wish there was a way to disable the driver when running from a VM. Not sure if this would prevent me from running the Boot Camp partition in a VM? Parallels apparently designed their drivers so that they would not run within the Boot Camp environment.
I haven't yet attempted to run Parallels from the Boot Camp partition. But this is one possible issue I'm trying to research first. Has anyone here attempted this?
I haven't yet attempted to run Parallels from the Boot Camp partition. But this is one possible issue I'm trying to research first. Has anyone here attempted this?
@khaneliman: Thank you, I appreciate the suggestion.
@kemajor: Actually Windows 8.1 works O.K. with Late-2013 Macbook Pro. But, correct, it's not supported by Apple "officially". Also, upgrade path from 8.0 is not what would work. To get everything working the clean install is required.
Even faster mouse movement - yes, I can add it in one of the future releases. But, honestly (for an average user) at max speed + turbo checkbox it's already too fast... But I understand, you are no ordinary user.
For a VM question, please see my response to skallal (below).
@ActionableMango: Work on the Magic Trackpad driver takes place, but so far no luck with getting it to function, no even minimal success. It's because Bluetooth programming too much different. Thus, no public availability, and no updates on the website. Yet.
@skallal: The Trackpad++ driver is for the Boot Camp only, so in general I cannot be responsible for the VM issues. While very convenient, sharing the Boot Camp partition for VM booting could be not that good idea anyways. E.g. In the past I have had the issues with such configuration, even without the Trackpad++. However, previous version of Parallels (8) had no issues, with Trackpad++ being simply disabled on boot to VM. But now VMware (and new Parallels 9) users have mixed feedback - some report no issues, some report freeze after booting. But it's the VM vendor responsibility to properly unload 3rd-party drivers. To summarize, use only not-shared-with-VM Boot Camp installation to avoid any potential issues. But if you have no valuable data on this partition, consider trying how does shared-with-VM booting work for you specifically (with your version of VM, and your version of Windows).
Cheers,
Vladimir
@kemajor: Actually Windows 8.1 works O.K. with Late-2013 Macbook Pro. But, correct, it's not supported by Apple "officially". Also, upgrade path from 8.0 is not what would work. To get everything working the clean install is required.
Even faster mouse movement - yes, I can add it in one of the future releases. But, honestly (for an average user) at max speed + turbo checkbox it's already too fast... But I understand, you are no ordinary user.
For a VM question, please see my response to skallal (below).
@ActionableMango: Work on the Magic Trackpad driver takes place, but so far no luck with getting it to function, no even minimal success. It's because Bluetooth programming too much different. Thus, no public availability, and no updates on the website. Yet.
@skallal: The Trackpad++ driver is for the Boot Camp only, so in general I cannot be responsible for the VM issues. While very convenient, sharing the Boot Camp partition for VM booting could be not that good idea anyways. E.g. In the past I have had the issues with such configuration, even without the Trackpad++. However, previous version of Parallels (8) had no issues, with Trackpad++ being simply disabled on boot to VM. But now VMware (and new Parallels 9) users have mixed feedback - some report no issues, some report freeze after booting. But it's the VM vendor responsibility to properly unload 3rd-party drivers. To summarize, use only not-shared-with-VM Boot Camp installation to avoid any potential issues. But if you have no valuable data on this partition, consider trying how does shared-with-VM booting work for you specifically (with your version of VM, and your version of Windows).
Cheers,
Vladimir
@ALL:
Just for the general information of the community: Boot Camp 5.1 has become available now. I have verified that Trackpad++ works just as fine as it did with Boot Camp 5.0 environment. Also, I can tell that nothing has changed to the best in the Apple native trackpad driver. The same basic features, the same (if not worse) defects.
A note for existing Trackpad++ users: if you are upgrading Boot Camp drivers, please reinstall the Trackpad++ after Boot Camp is updated. Important - to ensure proper reinstallation, please always quit Trackpad++ Control Module from its tray icon first (right-click its '++' icon and choose to exit).
Just for the general information of the community: Boot Camp 5.1 has become available now. I have verified that Trackpad++ works just as fine as it did with Boot Camp 5.0 environment. Also, I can tell that nothing has changed to the best in the Apple native trackpad driver. The same basic features, the same (if not worse) defects.
A note for existing Trackpad++ users: if you are upgrading Boot Camp drivers, please reinstall the Trackpad++ after Boot Camp is updated. Important - to ensure proper reinstallation, please always quit Trackpad++ Control Module from its tray icon first (right-click its '++' icon and choose to exit).
Donated for both Trackpad+++ and your other power management app (name escapes me now) a year ago and have been using it ever since without issue!
Thanks for developing such useful tools Vlad and for making it donation ware The fact that you are directly reachable through email is very helpful as well.
Thanks for developing such useful tools Vlad and for making it donation ware
The fact that you are directly reachable through email is very helpful as well.Disable autostart in Parallels
Hi, i have same problem in parallels (8) and running from bootcamp-partition. (windows 8.0) . after loading the trackpad++ driver windows will hang/crash.
please add an option to detect running inside parallels and then don't start the driver. actually parallels has its own "parallels tools"-driver which maybe optimizes mouse.
Hi, i have same problem in parallels (8) and running from bootcamp-partition. (windows 8.0) . after loading the trackpad++ driver windows will hang/crash.
please add an option to detect running inside parallels and then don't start the driver. actually parallels has its own "parallels tools"-driver which maybe optimizes mouse.
@ayurmedia: Trackpad++ driver is only for the real Windows 7/8.1 installation via Boot Camp, so Parallels (and other VMs) are definitely incompatible. The driver is already deactivated if VM boot is detected, so the problems, if any, are on the VM vendor's side. Honest 'no' is better than false 'maybe': I cannot be responsible for anything that happens in unsupported environment, so whereas I wish to help, there is nothing to do from my side.
Vlad, is there anyway you can remove the expiration date? I only boot into Windows 8 a few times a week for my computer science classes and having to constantly reboot and reset my settings just to apply a newer version is extremely annoying and I can't afford to donate any money.
Yeah. I am less than pleased with parallels. They are not supporting your awesome driver, let alone windows 8.1 for ****. I had to give up virtualization for now because I can't use parallels with boot camp and am not wasting more disk usage with redundant data.
@ALL: Just a general tip, for the information of the community. Trackpad++ driver can be used together with such tools as Dexpot and Emcee, to bring the OS X Mission Control (like) functionality to Boot Camp. Just assign the relevant shortcut to e.g. 4-finger swipe up Trackpad++ gesture, and enjoy the Mission Control feature in Windows. With the recent version of the Trackpad++ this can be done by setting up the Trackpad++ 'Run Application' action for the gesture of your choice.