Are you a left or right handed mouse user?

I am just going through many of the little notes I made myself in OneNote for postings and this is one that I have skipped over a number of times. But now I have decided to key it up and post it.

Way back when Microsoft brought out Windows for the Intel 286-based computers, or 80286 computers to be more precise, they actually included an A5 sized User Manual of about—from memory—half an inch thickness. Because the Windows graphical user interface was so new and ground breaking the people at Microsoft actually needed to tell us how to use it. Seriously. Back then all this click’n’drag and double-clicking was new.

Before crafting up this post I actually tried to find the Microsoft Windows 2.0 or Windows/286 User Manual on the Web—but I could not. Not within the first 10 pages of either Google or Bing search results anyway.

I even searched Archive.org where so much of the ‘old’ Web is being stored away.

However I could not find an electronic copy of the the Microsoft User Manual for Windows 286 anywhere. I did find some screen shots of Windows 2.0/286. One of which follows, just for those that remember it.

Anyway, anyone who took the trouble to read the User Guide when they first set up an 80286 PC to run Windows/286 would have come across the following, as I did.

If you were a right handed person then the recommendation was to set the mouse up for left handed use, and, as you might have guessed, if you were a left handed person then you should set the mouse up for right handed use.

The thinking here was that this then freed up your writing hand to make notes or turn pages or whatever as you worked in Windows using your mouse hand.

So, as I am right handed I set the mouse up for left handed use and I have used the mouse with my left hand every day since. Now, even though I am right handed, if I try using the mouse with my right hand I am far less precise than I am with my left hand.