Logitech mouse driver alternative for Mac OS X

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3

I've had my Logitech MX Revolution for several years now, and I still like it a lot. However, when I first installed the software that came with it, Logitech's drivers required Application Enhancer (APE, which I don't want), and they kind of sucked anyway. They were glitchy and not particularly user-friendly or Mac-like.

Logitech MX Revolution

I looked around for third-party drivers, and pretty much the best thing I found was SteerMouse, which isn't any more Mac-like than Logitech's, and is semi-poorly translated from Japanese, but is more flexible and doesn't require APE. However, it's not free.

In the time since then, I've just been using Mac OS X's default mouse drivers, but that doesn't allow me to use the nice features of the mouse like the forward/back buttons, thumb wheel, horizontal scrolling speed adjustment, auto-activation of the free-spinning scroll wheel, etc. So, now I've brought the question here: what good, free Logitech-compatible mouse drivers/software exist for Mac OS X?

My requirements:

  • Forward/back button settings (it's really nice to adjust these just by setting keyboard shortcut equivalents, like Logitech's software allowed)
  • Horizontal scrolling speed adjustment
  • Application-specific settings (I loved being able to have the forward/back buttons do relevant things in each application)
  • Nothing too hacky, glitchy, or ugly!
  • Free! (otherwise I'll just continue being cheap and using the built-in drivers!)

Things that would be nice, but I'll live without:

  • Awareness of the mouse's free-spinning scroll capabilities, and auto-activation
  • Support for the thumb wheel/button
  • Support for the top "search" button

jtbandes

Posted 2009-07-18T00:38:04.150

Reputation: 8 350

Answers

8

I've not found a lot of quality free replacement mouse drivers for Mac OS X. There's two non-free options that I've evaluated, and either is good for me. Note that I don't have a Logitech mouse on my Macbook, I have an Evoluent Vertical Mouse.

jtimberman

Posted 2009-07-18T00:38:04.150

Reputation: 20 109

1Have used steer mouse for a few years now – Xetius – 2011-12-18T19:30:41.643

Any word on whether USB Overdrive supports Mac OS X Lion? – titaniumdecoy – 2011-12-26T19:59:39.933

@titaniumdecoy can't say, I switched to using a Magic Trackpad. – jtimberman – 2011-12-27T07:11:39.573

1

I was saddened that the LCC doesn't support my M-100 corded optical mouse. It does support my V-450 cordless optical mouse and works quite well with it. but I'm back to using the M-100 and all the features work perfectly without the LCC.

What I did was downloaded a trial version of USB-Overdrive 3.0.1, installed it, configured the wheel button to open my Dashboard and it worked perfectly. I then considered that the driver was going to cost me more than the mouse so I uninstalled USB-Overdrive and rebooted my system.

Guess what??? The scroll wheel button worked exactly as it did with USB-Overdrive installed. It's been several days and reboots have not affected the functions of any of the features of the M-100.

OldGeezer

Posted 2009-07-18T00:38:04.150

Reputation: 11

0

I bought a VX Nano yesterday and I didn't need to install any drivers. The back/forward buttons work as well as the tilt to scroll feature. But the web search button was mapped to autoscroll. To deal with the search button I installed usboverdrive which should almost definitely work for everything except the second scroll wheel and the auto activation of the hyper-scroll wheel. Unfortunately usboverdrive isn't free but if you are willing to pay $20, or don't mind closing a dialog box every time you log in, usboverdrive should work fie for you.

GameFreak

Posted 2009-07-18T00:38:04.150

Reputation: 184