How can I turn off mouse acceleration for PC Games in Windows XP?

Question

I've heard turning off mouse acceleration can help precision in games. How do I do this in Windows XP?

Asked by Jeffrey

Answer

Open Mouse Properties, and on the Pointer Options tab, look for "Select a pointer speed", then the "Enhance pointer precision" checkbox.

Answered by John Gietzen

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How can you play fullscreen-specific games windowed mode?

Question

The question is pretty straightforward.

I have games such as Thief: Dark project, Thief: Metal age and Arx fatalis (Possibly the greatest RPGs of all time, but anyway) and these are fullscreen-only games.

Is there any way to make them windowed? Commands such as -window, -w, ALT+TAB or ALT+ENTER don't work with these games. I'm looking for some software or alternate way of making them windowed.

Asked by ThePlan

Answer

Unless the game has the option to run windowed built in, there isn't a native way to do so, however I can suggest a few workarounds:

• If the game is old enough to have a DOS mode, try running the game in DOSBox, it allows you to play DOS games in a window.
• Try installing a virtual machine using a tool like VMWare, once you run the the virtual machine in a window, even if the game is running in full screen it will only take up the VM's window.
• Look for a program that allows you to simulate a second screen as a window, then run the full screen game on the simulated second screen. A quick google search turned up a tool called SplitView, but there should be other tools for the job.

Please note at least the first two solutions require software emulation and might have some performance impacts compared to running these games "naturally", but given that the games are old in the first place, this shouldn't be an issue, unless your computer isn't too strong.

Answered by JohnoBoy

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Why do my desktop gadgets move from their previous positions when I exit NFS: Most Wanted?

Question

Here is a problem I'm having ... I'm using Windows XP, and every time I play NFS: Most Wanted, when I close the game, my gadgets have moved from where I had them positioned. I'm using Vista_Rainbar for using gadgets on Windows XP.

This also happens after playing some other games, but I can't remember which ones at the moment.

So how can I fix this problem?

Answer

This is caused by a long-running bug in the Windows code. The gadgets do not auto-adjust their position after a resolution is changed to a bigger one.

Basically, when you are running a game with smaller resolution than your desktop, the desktop will automatically change the resolution to match the game's resolution, adjusting the gadgets to fit that resolution. When the resolution changes back, it is incapable of adjusting them back to the positions they were in.

There is currently no official fix for this, but there are a few workarounds you could try to use.

1. You could try exiting Vista_Rainbar before starting the game, and then start it after the game has shut down.
2. Running the game in window mode should also fix this problem.

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Why my desktop gadget move from there position when I exit the NFS Most Wanted?

Question

Here is a problem with me I'm using Windows XP and played NFS Most Wanted and when I closed the game my gadget was not at their position. I'm using VIsta_Rainbar for using gadget on Windows XP. And this happen with some others game too but not in mind at the moment.

So how can I fix this problem?

Answer

This is caused by a long running bug in the Windows code. The gadgets do not auto adjust the position after a resolution is changed to a bigger one.

Basically, when you are running a game, with smaller resolution than your desktop, the desktop will automatically change the resolution the games resolution, and adjusting the gadgets to fit that resolution. When the resolution changes back, it is incapable of adjusting it back to the position it was in.

There is currently no official fixes for this, but there are a few workarounds you could try to use.

1. You could try exiting Vista_Rainbar before starting the game, and then start it after the game has shut down.
2. Running the game in window mode should also fix this problem.

Check more discussion of this question.