I just realized you can’t assign Windows hotkeys to custom functions in the Logitech Setpoint tool. That really stinks, if you’re using a logitech mouse with all of these extra buttons, bells, and whistles. I’m currently using the MX1000 wireless laser mouse, which is pretty old but still my favorite. With Windows 7 I would love to be able to show the desktop with a click of the center mouse wheel, similar to how you can assign expose on a Mac in OS X. There is a “Show Desktop” button at the lower right hand corner of your screen, but it’s a lot faster to simply assign a mouse button. It took a little bit of searching, but here’s the hack / fix found here.

Instructions: (I had to right click on Notepad and choose “Run as Administrator” for it to work – without doing that it might not allow you to save the changes you make to the default.xml file)

1. Quit Setpoint.

2. Go into your Setpoint directory (in my case, it is: C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPoint)

3. Edit default.xml

4. Find this line: <HandlerSetGroup Name=”OthersGenericMiceGroup” HandlerSetNames=”CloseApplication,Copy,Cut,QuickSwitch,Do Nothing,DoubleClick,StartMenu,DragLock,GenericMouseButton,
LeftMouseButton,Maximize,MiddleMouseButton,Minimize,
PageDown,PageUp,Paste,Redo,Unassigned,Undo” />

5. Insert “ShowDesktop” option so that the line shows this: <HandlerSetGroup Name=”OthersGenericMiceGroup” HandlerSetNames=”CloseApplication,Copy,Cut,QuickSwitch,Do Nothing,DoubleClick,StartMenu,DragLock,GenericMouseButton,
LeftMouseButton,Maximize,MiddleMouseButton,Minimize,
PageDown,PageUp,Paste,Redo,ShowDesktop,Unassigned,Undo” />

6. Save the file.

7. Restart your Setpoint application which will be in the same directory.

8. Voila, now using your Setpoint application you can add the Show Desktop functionality to your side buttons.

If you want to use the keyboard command, it’s simply Windows Key + D

A special thanks to Razvan Lupusoru for this cool trick.

Tags: custom fuction, fix, hack, laser mouse, logitech, mouse, setpoint, show desktop, windows 7, windows vista, windows7

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 3:05 PM and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.