Evoluent – Inventor of The Vertical Mouse – VM4R Ergonomic Vertical Mouse Right Hand Med to Large Wired, Sculpted for Comfort, Reduces Wrist Strain, Adjustable Speed, Customizable Buttons in Windows

I never write reviews but I just happened to notice that it was 2013 that I bought this mouse x2 (almost 10 years ago!) and I had to write a review given my experience.I have 2 of these vertical mice: one at work, one at home. Each of them have been used since 2013.Ergonomics: I was dealing with horrible carpal tunnel syndrome when a coworker suggested I try a vertical mouse. The pain made me nauseous, I was feeling odd wet/hot/cold/prickly sensations in my fingertips and horrible pain in my wrist. Given that my career (particularly early on) required me to be not only doing long hours at work but also practicing my craft at home/constantly improving: it was a possibly career-threatening issue for me to be unable to shake the carpal tunnel issue, to need time off to heal it, or just simply be uncomfortable and unable to focus. I found immediate relief with this mouse and haven't had carpal tunnel issues since.Precision: These mice take some time and practice to acclimate to. I recommend having a "normal" mouse handy while acclimating so that you have a quick way to accomplish a task if the adjustment period is frustrating your work efforts. I did this and it helped. I figured: better to split time between two mice for a while than to get frustrated, decide to switch back to something I was used to, and never go back to the ergonomic mouse (and probably suffer carpal tunnel syndrome again). The severity of my carpal tunnel experience was the only reason I didn't initially return the mouse; at first I thought there was no way I could ever be as productive on something that initially felt like painting with my left pinky toe. Once you're used to it it is as "second nature" as any mouse. I do click-heavy character rigging and technical animation work with it, I animate characters with it (hundreds upon hundreds of clicks and moves all day long, utilizing all of the buttons, including the programmable ones), and I game with it. Aside from the break-in period where my brain adjusted to a vertical mouse (maybe 2 weeks, tops?) I've never felt at a disadvantage with precision or control with these mice.Build quality: I've slammed these mice out of frustration, I've worked "rounders" and weekends and shipped multiple game titles (and worked on some unshipped ones) using my "work" verticle mouse, my home mouse gets ridiculous hours of use as well as I've taken animation classes, do side-work, game, etc. I've been too lazy to automate tasks under a deadline and rapidly clicked the buttons to accomplish a task (think: a "clicker" game :) ). I'm as hard on these mice as you could imagine and I've never had issues with them. Not even the software has failed me once. These mice have outlasted the usefulness of a combined ~6 PCs in that time, multiple keyboards, etc. They're bulletproof.Zero complaints. Whatever your use is, and ESPECIALLY if you've ever had carpal tunnel symptoms, this mouse is well worth the purchase price and awkward transition period.One note: Another reason to have a horizontal mouse hooked up in tandem is for anyone else that may use your machine intermittently. I needed IT assistance a few times and they groaned and complained about my "funky" mouse. I typically have a horizontal mouse stowed under my monitor for visitors to my machine.

I bought this mouse from the manufacturer before it was available here. I have big hands; my wife says they are bear paws.The mouse has a flange on the bottom to keep your little finger from dragging on the mouse pad; I was concerned my hand would be too big. As it is, there is no problem with my hand's size. The manufacturer's reviews have some women whose hands are too small for this mouse.As far as use of the mouse, there is an ergonomist's posting on another version of this mouse that I think is worth reading. I try to take his advice on using this mouse.In addition to giving you a more natural grip, like a handshake, the mouse gives you 6 buttons, and a wheel. Evoluent provides a driver so you can program the buttons to any one of quite a few functions, and they are easily reprogrammable.The bottom thumb button (there are two) allows you to give the finger buttons alternate functions when they are pressed. I've programmed my alternates to top button = BACK. middle button = Open Explorer. and bottom button = page down.I've programmed the top thumb button to change pointer speed. You get up to three speeds to select from. I have speed 1 the fastest, and at that setting I can move the cursor a long way with very little hand motion.I'm an electronic engineer and mostly develop software that interacts with hardware. I'm always opening up explorer to goto another directory to find a file I need. With this mouse, I don't need to cursor to the START button; I just press the bottom thumb button and the middle finger button, and explorer starts up. How cool is that?I spend about 3 hours working with my investments every weekend, and I'm currently taking it home with me on Friday, and bringing it back to work on Monday. I'm seriously considering getting another on just for home.If I did a lot of continuous typing, I'd get a Kinesis Keyboard, and a number key pad to complete the ergonomic setup.One final note for gamers. I'm not a gamer, but there are big mousepads out there so you can move your mouse a lot without going off the pad. With this mouse set to the highest speed, I think a standard mouse pad will be more than sufficient.Going through a hub, instead of directly plugging into a computer's USB port doesn't seem to affect the mouse's response time.Update: Oct 2, 2013I had to order another one. It fell off my work station one too many times. The workstation's mouse pad slants down, and the mouse just slid off of it. My youngest brother is an ergonomistist, and he says you shouldn't have wrinkles in your wrists when you type, or mouse. I do my best with what I have, but the pad points the wrong way.Another accessory to consider is the Fellowes heel pad (not sure of the name). It sort of fits on the base of the mouse, and allows you to move your hand without it rubbing on the mouse pad. Finally, do not use wrist pads. They create pressure points on your wrists and eventually cause problems. I have one, but I use it to lift up the back of my keyboard to minimize wrist wrinkles.I accidentally got a left handed mouse for home, but hardly ever use it. I mostly use it to open up a window. I had to rebuild my computer about a month ago, installed the drivers, but because I'm going to upgrade to Win 7 from Vista soon, I haven't bothered to program the extra function keys. I'll do that when I have Win 7 installed.Update: Mar 31, 2015When I tried uploading drivers for this mouse when I first installed Win 7, the driver didn't allow me to reprogram the buttons. I got an Adesso mouse, instead. Its smaller, and worked OK (just has forward and back buttons), but after about 2 weeks of continuous use, I got a pain in my palm, so I got a second Evoluent Mouse for work (I have two laptops that I frequently switch between). I looked for Win 7 drivers, and found some that let me reprogram the buttons, but don't affect the cursor speed. After a couple days, my hand is feeling better.I also got an updated Fellowes Gliding palm rest. It has the same part number as before, but has a wider, and more rounded cutout, so it fits the Evoluent mouse a lot better.