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Back in my Window days. I would start the driver installation and let it sit. Open the temp folder and copy content the install extracted to a new directory. Cancel the installation. Open Device Manager and install the drivers from there so non of the excessive bloat was installed.

This worked greater with being an IT consultant. The client's machine to run smoother and drivers installed fast since they would buy multiples of the same equipment at once.

Now I only use Linux on personal equipment. You have to pay me to use Microsoft products. Microsoft has become shit-ware.

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To be fair Microsoft was always shitware. I don’t remember a time when using a Windows machine just worked, didn’t take up gigabytes of space, didn’t crash, and didn’t get messed up by simply using it requiring a yearly or semi-yearly reinstall.
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I remember when Windows didn't take gigabytes of space because there wasn't gigabytes of space, and it was still shitware.
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Windows in the 95-XP era wasn't exactly high-quality software, but it was genuine technical innovation, doing what you otherwise couldn't do.
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Nothing since then. Thats a long 30 years.
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Windows 3.1? It was only 6 3.5” disks.

To be fair, I had stretches of 2K, XP, 7 and 10 working acceptably.

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These eras of Windows had their own dark patterns that were incredibly anti-consumer. No one's lives were improved because they installed the Ask Jeeves toolbar, but people were asked to install it millions and millions of times.
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Microsoft BASIC was a pretty decent interpreter, I wouldn't call it "shitware", so there you go?
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I don't remember DOS 6.22 blue screening on me. Maybe it wasn't so bad.
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I would have preferred a Forth on my C64 seriously. But no, we were stuck with this "38911 bytes free" crap.
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When .INF was all you needed (and some .cat / sys)! More recently, I found out that approach can sometimes lead to missing features when using the hardware. Even though the driver is installed correctly. I was probably missing something but didn't dig deeper into it.
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7zip will do the trick for a lot of self extractors.
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> but aren't even using it to block these contraptions

Even worse, this one is installed via Windows update. I have an LG monitor and noticed the stupid LG app all of the sudden, uninstalled it, and saw it pop up again as an update in Windows update.

Microsoft is actively enabling this behavior.

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I don't understand how this is legal. Isn't this malware? Isn't it illegal to install malware on someone's computer without their permission? Or is this very illegal, but nobody cares about that anymore?
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you'd need to legally prove it's malware and they would definitely claim it's useful software tools that come with the hardware or something
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I guess it’s becoming harder for MS to define malware in a way that would catch this behavior but does not flag their own products as well.
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Microsoft could easily make a rulebook for drivers, and say any company which violates the rulebook can only send open source drivers, or even ban them from driver distribution entirely which would quickly kill a consumer hardware brand.
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My Logitech mouse does this but it prompts to install their crapware and adds that to the startup programs, it's not automatically installed.
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The last one I remember is plugging a Razer mouse

Oh, yeah. Bought this overpriced but heavily hyped Razer mouse and it wouldn't even work right until it had an internet connection. A MOUSE. I'd never encountered something so blatantly customer hostile in my life. Never even looked at another Razer product, never will, and will tell anyone who will listen that Razer is a terrible company full of objectively terrible people.

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Razer was always low quality garbage at premium prices. Gamer marketing for you.
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What do you recommend instead? In my opinion the Razer mice are always superior for FPS.
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I used to pulverize my friends with a Logitech G700 in Quake3/OpenArena. I'm sure it has a newer version.

Razer was never "definitively better". It's merely competitive with other top ones, that's all. Before G700, Logitech even had a mouse with two sensors and was the undisputed king for FPS quite some time.

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Mousereview reddit always recommends looking at Chinese gaming mice, they have reasonable prices, often clone popular mouse shapes from large brands (see [1]) and have the latest sensors.

[1] EloShapes find similar: https://www.eloshapes.com/mouse/find-similar

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Logitech all the way.

Logitech is a truly innovative company. They actually care deeply about ergonomics. They also introduced the first mass market application of programmable magnets (in the MX Master mouse scroll wheel) - that's incredibly advanced materials science.

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I’m no longer sure about their quality though. Out of four Logitech mice I bought recently (four different models), two died within a year. At least their warranty repair/replace process was decent.
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I had several Marathon mice which broke their 3-year battery life promises, by lasting way longer. I had to retire them since their plastics degraded in some cases after 6-7 years (I had several at one point due to having multiple PCs being used every day for long stretches).

Currently I use their MX Keys Minis, MX Anywhere mice and trackballs. All are rock solid. Bolt receiver works great with Linux via Solaar allowing full suite of features.

Oh, Firmware Update Daemon supports Logitech hardware, too. If Logitech sends in new firmware, it pops up instantly to upgrade.

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In my family we use the Glorious Model O. My son wanted one ages ago (I got him a mini), and it was so nice, I got one for myself. Now my oldest has a big one, and my youngest uses the mini.

We've had them for years. The mini has lost the button that lets you select speed, but other than that they're still great. For better than the various Logitechs I had before.

The only real downside is the bright flashing led patterns. I've gotten used to them.

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Their buttons fail way too easily, but can usually be fixed with some WD-40, CRC 5-56, or any similar thin oil.
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The switches on my $80 MX Anywhere 3 failed in under 2 years.
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What do you do to your mouses to make them fail so quickly? Are you throwing them randomly accross the room?
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Some Logitech mouse switches have been known to fail in normal use.

At least one person has put together a good overview of what they think is happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BhECVlKJA (details in video description)

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They just fail. Particularly the office mice don't last very long for gaming (orders of magnitude more travel and clicks)
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Use cats. For all great Logi ergonomics, they fall prey to cat hair; and pads cover the screws, so they can't be reassembled pristine after cleaning. Still, M500s is the best.
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They also managed to develop a steaming pile of shit called Logi Options+ which you need to set up your mouse (I only used the mac version to be fair)
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I can happily share that there is an open-source alternative, https://github.com/TomBadash/Mouser
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You don't need it. The mouse functions perfectly fine without it. And you can even switch DPI when the mouse has a button to do that.

The software allows for fine-tuned settings, button remapping, etc. It is awful software, to be sure, but it's not necessary to use the mouse.

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I'd say any cheap mouse off Amazon that has a pleasing shape is usually good enough, but I've also never ranked above gold in any competitive PvP shooter, so there's that :')

I'm currently using a wireless ProtoArc mouse. Good shape, can adjust DPI on the fly, hasn't broken even after a year. I think it was like 30 bucks maybe?

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80% of a mouse decision should be which form fits best for your hand. Unfortunately for me that's razor mice. (Well, the Viper v2, I dont love the v3 I have now.)
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Some Razer mice were somewhat good in the times when the sensor mattered, with the rest of them being absolute garbage (starting with the Copperhead which barely worked). Today there's a ton of niche manufacturers with great internals that will exceed any requirements you might possibly have.

If you're really interested in FPS performance and not just the brand, choose for the ergonomics first, it's not possible to recommend anything without knowing your play style, hand size etc. The shape and weight you like, and complementary feet and mat with the exact static/dynamic friction you need. Then check if the internals are good enough (they likely are) and whether there are any firmware issues like extra jitter on flicks or unavoidable debounce lag, then look at the required software. There's a ton of mice with excellent performance that are configurable without ANY software.

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> choose for the ergonomics first

This is unfortunately why I keep buying the Razer Deathadder Pro. It fits my hand perfectly and is super accurate. I hate their software, and the company, but the performance and ergonomics of the mouse are worth it to me.

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DA has probably the most widely cloned shape in the market and has many identical or compatible alternatives and clones, check e.g. MCHOSE A7 Ultra RE or Pulsar Xlite v4 Large (never had either so can't vouch for their software)

https://www.eloshapes.com/mouse/compare?p=razer-deathadder-v...

https://www.rtings.com/mouse/tools/3d-model-shape-compare/3d...

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Depends on which one and when it was sold. Some razers have pretty outdated sensors, plenty of better, lighter and cheaper options available.
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If you can find an original Glorious [0] Model O, that's a nice piece of hardware. The new Model O looks like it only works with their new, totally garbage Glorious CORE v2 software.

If you never want to change the DPIs, lighting, or button assignments, & etc then you don't need the software... so if what the hardware does out of the box is fine for you, then you don't need to worry about how trash CORE v2 is.

CORE v1 is okay, but still notably worse than the Model O software. I don't know why they farmed out the development of CORE v2 to "the CEO's middle-school nephew who's 'good with computers'", but they did.

[0] ...they were originally called "Glorious PC Gaming Race" (in homage to the Reddit meme), but dropped that last bit from their company name a while back...

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Model I with four thumb buttons is irreplaceable for me
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I also have a Model I and am unhappy with the fact that -when last I checked- you can't configure the three or four extra buttons so they're actually buttons. Your only option is for them to generate keypresses, or do mouse-management functions -such as "cycle DPI"-.

This is... frustrating. Multi-button HID devices are -arguably- easier to do than something that pretends to be both a mouse and a keyboard. I get that some games may not understand how to deal with mice that have more than four or five mouse buttons, it'd be quite nice if I had the option to set things up so that I can use them as buttons in games that know how to handle them.

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Logitech have always made great gaming mice in my experience, at a reasonable price
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I know hardly anything about FPS but the reason I like Razer mice is the hardware macros. Configuration profiles are saved to the device and macros are performed at the hardware level. Some actions work with the razer software but most of them don't have to.
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You literally need two or three mouse buttons for a FPS game. This argument might have worked if you said MMO because there’s a million abilities you can use but there’s absolutely nothing special about Razer mice when it comes to FPS specifically.
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Gamer marketing for you.

Which I fell for. Fool me once and all that...

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This. Microsoft has chosen to allow this functionality, despite it being a very clear breach of trust with customers.

LG/Dell/et al should be shamed and blamed for even trying this shit in the first place, but it’s Microsoft who holds the blame for allowing such malware and spyware trash through their own update service.

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You’re acting like Microsoft aren’t pushing malware themselves.
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That's just a parallel fact, no one's "acting" like anything?

What were you actually trying to say?

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I am saying that people here seem to be appealing to Microsoft as an authority that should be interested in stopping this, perhaps because they are morally superior or concerned about their reputation. They are not.
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No, Microsoft should be stopping this because Microsoft is doing it, and it is wrong. HDMI does not, to my knowledge, provide a mechanism for loading code: it's Microsoft software looking the product model up in a Microsoft database, downloading the appropriate malware, and executing it with elevated privileges (bypassing UAC).
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How in the world does that absolve Dell/etc, OR reduce Microsoft’s culpability for letting their update service be abused?
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Microsoft could end up being a higher barrier but how much do we really want that?

To me, it seems like LG is the one to blame.

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> Microsoft could end up being a higher barrier but how much do we really want that?

For drivers installed automatically via Windows Update? Absolutely yes.

For software the user installs manually? No.

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Microsoft has been coddling big devs (read: the devs that code this absolute garbage) for decades. They have this mentality "if we change anything, and anything breaks for current users, they're going to blame us instead of the vendor" and that might have been useful in the 95 days, but it's outmoded. They need to have the balls to break every vendor in 2026 if they're doing things they shouldn't.

I don't trust Microsoft not to be a modern capitalist, but I trust the companies they enable even less.

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