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Increase trackpad (and mouse) tracking speed
Authored by: MrVern on Feb 04, '10 10:31:23PM

I'm a OS X newbie, so I am extremely proud of myself for having been able to figure this out. I have the Magic Mouse, and I really needed it to track a lot faster.

The newer versions of OS X use a binary format for the preference files. That's why when we look at them using the old method they are unreadable. I used the plutil command to convert the binary file to XML and back again after editing.

Here's how.
In the terminal window issue the command:
plutil -convert xml1 -e xml ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

Edit the ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.xml file in your favorite editor. I used vi, but there must be another easier one.

Find the (in my case, mouse) section of the XML file that says:
<key>com.apple.mouse.scaling</key>
<real>3</real>

Change the 3 to 20 and save the file.

To verify the file is not messed up, in the terminal window, issue the command:
plutil ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.xml

It should return the full path to the file and ": OK"; if not, figure out what you did wrong.

To convert the XML file back to the binary version issue this command in the terminal window:
plutil -convert binary1 -e plist ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.xml

I rebooted and now my mouse tracks all the way across the screen with just a little more than 4 inches movement of the mouse.



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