Well if you purchase yourself one of Microsoft's new optical mice, then the answer is yes. Gone are the days when you spent 10 minutes with a small screw driver trying to get rid of the fluff and gunk that has magically appeared from your imaculatly clean mouse mat! You could say that this is the most important development in mouse technology, since the mouse was first incepted, but then that would be over the top, a bit!

** Features **
There are several feature of this new mouse, the most important being the "IntelliEye" optical sensor which makes your mouse work. This nifty piece of kit checks for movement 1,500 times a second, wow, and will work hundreds of surfaces including wood, plastic or even your trouser leg (providing of course that the surface is smooth and the motion the mouse ise used in is smooth!). The mouse also has the now standard feature of most mice the wheel, which I would herald as the second most important development in mice!

The mouse is also designed, apparently, so that a person with either hand orientation can use the mouse comfortable. The nice designers have also catered for people with small and large hands, claiming that the design encourages natural posture (natural posture when using a mouse?).

** Installing **
This was as easy as finding the USB port or PS/2 port to plug the mouse into, very easy, and when the computer detected the new mouse install the software on the computer, this also was very easy all you have to do is to click next as there are not many option for installation.

Overall a very easy products to install.

** Software **
As I have said this is very easy to install, it is also just as easy to use. Basically this software lets you configure the operation of the mouse. You can assign certain actions to the numerous buttons it may have, depending on the version. You can set the mouse to left or rifgh hand mode, swaps the two main buttons
around. You can assign the action that the scroller has, although the default is the most useful. You can also set the orientation of the mouse, which way it moves when you move it. Overall this is avery useful bit of software for managing the operation of your mouse, and you thought it just move the pointer around the screen!

To access this software you can either open it from the system tray icon or from the control panel. Either way you get the same bit of software.

Overall this software is very easy to use.

** System Requirements (Source Microsoft.com)**
For the Microsoft Operating System:
Hard Disk 30 MB of available hard disk space.
Drive CD-ROM drive
Operating System</b> One of the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later or Windows 2000.
PeripheralsRound mouse port (PS/2-compatible) or USB port (USB requires Windows 98,Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 2000).
Miscellaneous IntelliPoint version 3.0 software (included).

For the Macintosh Operating System:
Hard Disk 15 MB of available hard-disk space.
Drive CD-ROM drive.
Operating System Mac OS 8.6 or later operating system (excluding OS X or later); iMac also requires iMac update 1.1.
Peripherals USB port .

** My Thoughts **
When I needed a new mouse for my computer I had a think for a while and decided that my best choice was this new mouse from Microsoft. I have used other Microsoft hardware products before, such as their older mice and their keyboards. These I found to be very good, the build quality was excellent and the ease of their installation and use was re-assuring. Having used the mouse for a couple of months now, I have become a custom to the red glow that eminates from the mouse as the optical sensor does it's business. This red glow has become quite soothing, apprt from when it starts to g
et all of the monitor, but some inventive mouse positioning can prevent this. Overall, this is a very good product and would recommend any to purchase one of these mice when they need a new mouse.