Ok, this is aimed at those who already have a working implementation of FFscroll on their Winds and understand the basics. If you're interested in having two finger scrolling like the macs, peruse this thread which includes drivers and instructions. I advise scanning the whole thread because it addresses some common issues with getting this set up, and probably many questions in regards to this post.

Ok, so if you're using FFScroll you've probably tried the FFscroll prefpane in system configuration and found it to be lacking. The settings don't reach nearly high enough ranges for our trackpads to get a decent, smooth response (at least in my experience!!) I have attached my own plist at the bottom of this thread, if you'd like to try mine.

For example the vertical scrolling start threshold can only go up to 61 in this prefpane. It defaults to 90 but if you make the slightest change it will reset it to 61 and your mouse becomes unusable; it's always trying to scroll. Also, the sensitivity slider at the top is way too short in range, if this was to scale for best settings for the Wind, it would be as long as the whole prefpane window so we need to edit things manually and ignore this page completely.

If you followed the other thread you know about putting the com.apple.driver.appleps2trackpad.plist file in two preferences directories:

/Library/Preferences and:
/Users/username/Library/Preferences

The only one that seems to matter for making changes is the plist in your user library folder, so fiddle with this one!

Open it up, and fiddle with the settings under Root>UserPreferences>TwoFinger

Here is a list of things I changed to get as close to the mac experience as I could:
- verticalScrollingRate 50 <<< Contrary to its name, this doesn't seem to be the rate at which the driver scrolls but rather the sample rate of the trackpad for vertical scrolling, since decreasing the value increases the scroll rate and also the pad behave erratically when scrolling, jumping all over the place. It's linked to "sensitivity" under the FFScroll prefpane and the max it can be set to there is 15/16. For me, 50 provided a much smoother scrolling experience. Increase above its default value until satisfied.

- zAcceptsToStart 6 <<< Number of potential scrolling samples detected before scrolling begins. Defaults to 2. I changed to 6, seemed to decrease the likelihood of scrolling more when removing finger(s) from the trackpad.

- zAcceptThreshold 88 <<< Value at which finger pressure is detected as a scroll attempt. For a given sample this is flagged as "1" zAccept. It seems to be pressure, not % trackpad covered by fingers, so even with two fingers you do have to press more than with normal mouse movement. Max value in prefpane is 61, useless. Using files from the other thread it's default is 90. This is actually ok, but i reduced mine a bit so that I didn't have to press quite as much on the trackpad. You may even want to increase this, if you find you're scrolling when just mousing about.

- zArraySize 16 <<< Number of samples taken when analysing for Accepts, I believe. Default is 8, when I increased it the scrolling felt smoother to stop and start, less jumping.

- zDeclineThreshold 83 <<< Opposite of zAcceptThreshold, threshold at which a sample is flagged as too light to be a scroll attempt. Default value is 60. Increasing this to close to zAccept dramatically reduces the amount of jumping when you finish a scroll and lift your fingers from the trackpad.

If you use horizontal scrolling you can mess with the values there too. And I'm thinking that if you've got multiple users, you can either copy the plist into their libraries to update their settings, or update the SynapticsPreferences with the same settings in all plists and perhaps it will default to those.

Here is my plist for the Wind so far; put in your Library>Preferences folder in your User folder overwriting the other one (back that up obviously, in case you hate my settings!) and restart FFscroll. This plist is set up to give the closest scrolling experience to the macs I use:

FFscroll plist for MSI Wind

Also, DONT use the prefpane! Get it set up how you like it and then leave it! Opening it may overwrite these settings. I wonder if anyone can edit the prefpane to increase its range (making it useful) or failing that write their own settings app. I'd do it if I knew quite where to start.

This thread is exactly what i was praying for yesterday
when i could not get the settings right and gave up due to lack of usb mouse
thanks very much for settings
I will try these as soon as i get a USB mouse or borrow one from work hee hee

You're welcome! I'll update/add more versions of my plist as I tweak it further I definitely recommend playing with the settings until you're comfortable with your own, too.

Hi heres my tweaked plist

i found with your original i could not scroll up with easy

i have made it a little sensitive so you can scroll with 2 fingers or 1 finger with a little pressure

let me know if you like im going to twaek a little more.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y8PCX6MO

please take a look at this:

mac/touchpad-great-preformance-look-the-video-t5074.html

Intriguing! Here's wishing it was freeware that looks very nice and smooth..

CrArC thanks for your setting. Works like a dream. Almost like my MacBook

big thanks CrArC and Faye , now my wind become macbookwind

It works. Not reliably though. I have been playing around with settings for quite some time now, but cannot get it right. The scrolling being pressure dependent (and not purely dependent on number of fingers) makes it hard to use. Its either too sensitive or too hard to invoke reliably everytime. I tried both the preference files posted here on this page, and both require me to press too hard. Probably settings don't transfer too well from computer to computer.

Is there any way to enable double tap and drag? It doesn't work right now, even though it is enabled in the preferences. It works for the slider bar on the side, but not for moving windows etc. Full tap and drag (for moving windows too) works for default backup kext i have - the one without the 2-finger scroll.

Not sure on the double-tap and drag, unfortunately. You could peek in the plist to see if it's enabled there? I'm currently experiencing problems with the scrolling function jerking and jumping about under things like Safari, keep having to restart FFScroll. Probably time for a reinstall

Can't figure out tap and drag from the plist. It works for moving icons on the desktop etc., but not for moving windows. Weird. Also a double tap gets registered as multiple taps too often - often opening a sub-folder in finder inadvertently, or selecting an entire para instead of a word. Tap-and-drag to select text is extremely difficult to do. Have tried to play around with settings, but not getting it right. And the scroll itself is quirky. Scrolling up is difficult - i have to scroll down a bit and then scroll up. Sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. In the end, I am wondering whether scrolling is worth the hassles. Might just go back to installing the default kext floating around.

I wish we had just simple scroll via right edge, like it works in windows. Most people won't care about fancy 2-finger scroll etc., if there was a reliable scroll zone. People feeling bad about not having a synaptics touchpad - you are not missing out on anything great . Here's hoping someone figures out reliable scroll settings.

Nice job CrArC, your settings work great on my trackpad.

You're welcome, everyone! Pumpkinwhite, the settings may not transfer 100% to every Wind... they should be close, though! Have you tried restarting FFscroll after the plist is in place? There should be some noticeable difference between the plists.

If your scrolling requires too much pressure, decrease zAcceptThreshold, keeping it above zDeclineThreshold, which you can also reduce if necessary. Increase verticalscrollingrate and zArraySize to get a smoother experience with the scrolling. If the changes you are making are having no effect whatsoever the plist may be in the wrong place or something else might be wrong. I can confirm for you that scrolling up IS more difficult than scrolling down, quite a few people have experienced this. To be honest, it's not the most awesome solution for scrolling on a synaptics pad. I just don't have the experience to be able to code one myself, or I would try for a simpler solution.

You can change your double-tap frequency threshold in the Keyboard and Mouse prefpane in system config. From memory I think that slider still has effect when ffscroll is running.

Thanks for the detailed description CrArC. This certainly helps.
I do restart the FFScroll (via terminal) after every change. And the changes do stick. Getting it to work is not the problem. I have been playing around with the settings as you mentioned. Just that it's difficult to arrive at comfortable settings. I can live with the unreliable scroll. It's the double tap that has me more frustrated. You are right that changing it in the touchpad preferences does work. However for the all possible double-click speed settings, it registers more than 2 taps quite often. It does change the double-click speed correctly, but regardless of frequency, I keep getting too many false clicks. Can't seem to get around it. Also I couldn't get tap-and-drag for windows to work.

For now i have reverted back to the stock kext. Though i don't have scroll. the trackpad is at least reliable. I don't get false clicks and I can tap-and-drag windows. I wish someone could combine the two drivers. I'll have another crack at the FFScroll method though, and i'll report back if there is any progress.

pumpkinwhite: did you arrive at any better solution with your setup. I was having the same issues, registration of more than 2 clicks, inability to use tap and drag and pressure dependent scrolling unreliable.

also for all of you, is there a way to get 1 finger for moving the mouse and 2 finger with no pressure for scrolling? it seems like that would be more intuitive but my setup scrolls for both with a little pressure, resulting in inadvertent movement of the mouse out of the active window?

@ericft
Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution. I tried a hack posted somewhere to get side-scrolling to work (instead of the two-finger one). But that didn't work at all. So, still using the basic drivers (without scroll).

Right now, it seems like we have a choice between - a) fancy but unreliable two finger scroll; no double tap & drag to move windows; unreliable double clicks; or b) reliable clicking with tap & drag, but no scrolling.

I went with the 2nd option after going back and forth a few times.

It's funny that all over this board people are happy about having synaptics pad. I was just wondering - if basic scroll works on the sentelic, and you have the tap and drag etc., doesn't that make the sentelic pad better? Who cares whether the scrolling is 2-finger or not as long as it works. Without reliability, 2-finger scroll is just a fancy concept. And with the baggage of unintended extra clicks and no tap-drag it's a non-solution anyway. I would rather have the basic zone dependent scrolling on the sentelic (i.e. if it indeed works; just guessing).

The synaptics pad works so well on the xp side, but on the mac side, not so much. I would be happy to be proven wrong though . I am surprised at the number of people that seem to be happy with the synaptics pad. Always makes me wonder if i missed anything .

I concur!! When i bought my wind i was dreading the so called inferior sentelic pad...tried a few sentelic drivers in osx to no avail...didn't have any goals for win xp...then on a whim i installed synaptics drivers in xp only to find that i had the fully functional vertical side scrolling...loved it...
only to be dissapointed like you in osx...the whole reason for getting the msi wind in the first place...despite having the much coveted synaptics pad i'm SOOL, with not functionality other than tap to click!!! what irony...be careful what you wish for....

hopefully someone (hint hint maybe synaptics) like realtek will leak out an updated driver for OSX...that and the voodoo team's HDA solution and we'll be all in business....putting apple out of business that is...

dream...dream...

Sentelic FTW!!! Someone came out with some new drivers for the sentelic which allow you to do the side scroll, in mac os X (like if you are using a synaptics in XP) it also has horizontal scroll. People are going to start swapping Synaptic pads for Sentelic pads soon !!!

I replaced my 6.5 Synaptics for a 6.2 Synaptics and I gained all sorts of functionality, 2 finger, 3 finger etc in XP. I was able to get the "pressure sensitive two finger" scrolling working very nicely in os x, but tap tap hold to drag windows wasn't working and I have to have that. Double taps were squirrely too. I went back to stock. I saved my prefs in case I ever figure it out.

I have a synaptics 6.5 pad and have no scroll functionality at all in any os... can someone simplify things for me on the mac osx side of things so I can get it working? Would also like tap to click functionality... two finger scroll or horizontal/vertical scrolling would be fine. Having none really sucks .