Dell must die!

[Theco]

OK, I'm having a technical problem here:

One of the classes I teach is in a computer lab. the new computers we just got in are Dell Optiplex 745's. They come with the standard 7-button (two main, wheel button, side-to-side on the wheel and two little buttons on the left side). I think the model number on the mouse is R41108. My problem is the two little buttons on the side. They are defaulted to go backwards and forwards in web browsers, but unfortunately hitting back during a quiz makes a student lose his place and work in the quiz/test, and a lot of people are doing this inadvertently. Is there anyway to disable those two buttons? I'm running XP.

I've tried getting help from Dell customer support for the past two days, but they are impossible to get a hold of, and rude and unhelpful when you do.

thanks in advance.

Corey

[Crazy Ivan]

hopefully, if the dell drivers are installed correctly, go to Sart>settings>Control Panel>Mouse, and you should see a tab with a label Buttons and you should be able to reprogram or disable the buttons there.

hope that helps.


IVAN aka Dan

[Theco]

Ok, I got it figured out about a half hour after I posted. You were close, Dan. :)

Apparently, when whoever bought all the computers for the lab, they got a free upgrade on the mice. Unfortunately Dell didn't upgrade the drivers when they switched over to the mice; so I had to goan uninstall the old one (it was actually a different one, that's why it wouldn't update in the first place), and then reinstall the new one. Now there's a nifty little icon in the system tray which allows me to assign all seven buttons. Sweetness!

Thanks Dan.

Corey