A use for the IntelliPoint software

Usually I do not install the IntelliPoint software that is in the box when you buy a Microsoft Mouse – unless I have Visual Studio installed on the computer I am using the mouse with. Visual Studio has two buttons to the left of the Start Debugging button on the main tool bar. These two buttons will allow you to navigate back and forth to positions the caret was in within the text editor windows. But the navigate buttons are not mapped to the back and forward buttons of the mouse like they are in a web browser. If you have the IntelliPoint software installed, you can easily map these to the back/forward buttons of the mouse.

First open the control panel, and double click the mouse applet. Check the “Enable program-specific settings” check box, click the Settings button, click the Add button and browse to the program C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe (the Visual Studio exe). Select the “Large thumb button” dropdown, and select keystroke. Press and hold the Ctrl key, then press – (the minus key), then select OK. Do the same for “Small thumb button”, except you will want to press Ctrl and Shift, then the minus key.

When done, you can navigate back and forth in source documents like you can in a web browser