I’m sitting at an AMD Fusion-powered nettop, writing this post. The computer sips power, yet is still respectable enough to drive light workstation tasks on my 24-inch, 1080p monitor. I’m confident enough about this rig’s performance that I’ll be ordering another LCD soon…but I digress. The topic of this post revolves around the fact that, in addition to a trusty lowish-end Logitech mouse, I’m using Apple’s much-hyped Magic Trackpad as a fully functional pointing device for a computer that’s never seen an Apple logo.
Here’s how to get where I am (assuming you have a Windows 7 computer with Bluetooth…and assuming you own a $69 Magic Trackpad)
- Pair your trackpad (no code needed) with your computer via Bluetooth. You’ll only get basic pointing functions when you do this but that’s the first step that I did.
- Download this and open/install it. It’s Apple’s Magic Trackpad driver, extracted from one of their more recent Boot Camp updates.
- Let Windows re-recognize your trackpad. You’ll lose the ability to point and click for several seconds, but when that ability comes back tap-to-click, two-finger-tap-to-right-click, two-finger scrolling, bottom-left-corner right-click and other features will be enabled on your aluminum-and-glass pointing masterpiece.
One big caveat: there is no way to enable/disable any of the above features (mentioned in step 3). They’re all turned on, and combined with the fact that you’re using a touchpad on what I presume is a desktop computer, you may be in for a jumpy, potentially maddening experience. I am unsure of whether Apple’s Boot Camp Windows application will install on a non-Apple piece of kit, but that’s where the settings for this device are. So if you want to turn off tap-to-click, try installing that (download Apple’s latest Boot Camp update and extract with 7-zip, then extract various files again until you find what you’re looking for).
I hope the above post inspires and enlightens others to follow where I have trod, albeit a bit more easily since a 1.77MB file is smaller than a 280MB one. Comment back if you’re able to piece together the settings part of this puzzle, or if you’ve experienced success in your endeavor at the above.
#1 by Trackpad Controller on June 20, 2011 - 6:34 am
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There is a free Installer for Apples Magic Trackpad Driver for Windows. It automatically detects your Windows version (32/64 bit) and installs the correct driver.
As BootCamp doesn’t run on non-Mac hardware, there is also a Control Panel which allows you to configure all Magic Trackpad settings on non-Mac hardware.