But a mouse can also do some things that aren't as obvious. In fact, it probably came with some software that you might have ignored. The most important program is right in the control panel of your operating system.

Most operating systems allow you to make fine adjustments in the performance of your mouse. These can have a major impact on your comfort level. Here are some of the things you may be able to control:

Lefty or righty. Mouse software comes pre-set for right-handed people, which means the left mouse button is used for most clicking. If you're a lefty, the mouse control can swap the functions of the two buttons.

Speed. The speed of a mouse-controlled cursor moving across the screen can also be controlled. A slower-moving cursor is easier to control, but a faster one lets you perform tasks more quickly.

Acceleration. As you roll the mouse across the desktop, a sophisticated mouse driver will move the screen pointer slowly at first, then accelerate as you continue moving the mouse. Your software may allow you to control this rate of acceleration.

Sensitivity. This determines how much you have to move the mouse to produce a given amount of movement on the screen. If the mouse is too sensitive, you may not be able to control it accurately; if it's not sensitive enough, you may find yourself constantly pawing at the desktop to move an object from point A to point B.

The mouse pointer and mouse tails. Your operating system may allow you to determine the shape and size of the on-screen pointer under different circumstances. For example, Windows displays the mouse pointer as an hour glass while it's busy reading to or writing from disk. You may want to change it to an animated dinosaur or a flower burst, which you can do through your Themes settings in Windows Control Panel/Display.

If you're working with a laptop that makes the cursor hard to see, you may want to change the size of the standard cursor, or set up the program so that the pointer leaves a faint trail of arrows across the screen.

Some two and three-button mice allow you to program the second and third buttons to launch programs or copy, cut, paste or delete objects, or automatically go back a page in the browser (simulates clicking the 'back' button). Check with the manual that came with your mouse.

For example, if you click on the icon that represents a file on your hard disk, the right button will produce a menu that asks whether you want to view it, copy it, move it, delete it or run the program associated with it. This can speed up many simple tasks.