# Mac Noob needs mouse help (Mighty Mouse woes)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903 "2008-04-25T22:00:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903/1 "2008-04-25T22:00:13Z")

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Mac gurus, I need your help.

I bought a Mighty Mouse for my Macbook pro a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t like it so I returned it. I messed around with button settings prior to disconnecting it.

Well, now when I hook up my generic usb mouse, my scroll wheel click button brings up the Dashboard and it’s really messing me up. I can’t wheel click to open a new tab on my browsing and it’s really screwing up any effort to play WoW.

The problem is, without the Mighty Mouse installed, I cannot access the button settings in the System Preferences. I only get basic mouse options.

Is there any way to either force the full mouse options without a Mighty Mouse installed or to restore the default settings?

Gah, I’m going insane.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903/2 "2008-04-25T23:08:13Z")

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Try trashing the following two files (you may need to re-do some settings after to you do this, but nothing should be fatal):  
In your home directory-\>Library-\>Preferences:  
com.apple.systempreferences.plist  
com.apple.universalaccess.plist

See if that works.

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**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903/3 "2008-04-25T23:34:51Z")

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Some of those settings are a little scattered, and/or in several places. Before giving up in homicidal rage, check some other System Preferences panels:

Keyboard Shortcuts (under Keyboard and Mouse) may well let you redefine the underlying key that your mouse-clicks are going to now.

Expose & Spaces has options for hiding/showing Dashboard/et all, which you can adjust as well.

(I’m assuming that the mighty-mouse was faking keystrokes. If that’s not correct, the above might not help you).

If you’ve got a “Pen Tablet” preference, check that, too.

Finally, the new mouse probably came with (or you can download if it’s old) driver software for Mac OS X – install it, and it will likely give you a replacement for the old mouse control panel that lets you set the buttons.

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**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-noob-needs-mouse-help-mighty-mouse-woes/446903/4 "2008-04-26T03:56:29Z")

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Thanks for the replies. I went into Expose and was able to clear one of the button settings there. I still have Dashboard problems though. I’ll try trashing the settings files later. 🙂