Is it possible to make a mouse accelerate like it did in Windows?

No, unless you buy a specific mouse

The option to define custom mouse acceleration curves was present in OS X 10.4, but apple simplified it in 10.5, and removed it entirely in 10.6.

Mouse Curve is a supposedly forthcoming pref-pane that completely replaces the OS X mouse HID kext. However, development is really slow, or stalled.

Personally, I have poked about a bit in the kernel myself, but am unfamiliar with kernel programming. Fixing the mouse acceleration on OS X will at minimum require a custom kext, which is non-trivial to code.

The option that is out there is to buy a Microsoft mouse, and use it on OS X. Microsoft has released custom drivers for their mice that mimic the mouse behavior on windows.


Essentially, the windows "Enhance Pointer Precision" option applies linear velocity-based acceleration to the mouse movements, e.g. the distance moved is proportional to the speed the mouse moves. Think of it as basically having the DPI of the mouse inversely proportional to the mouse's speed.

OS X on the other hand, has a stepped acceleration curve, where the mouse moves at one DPI when slow, and another when moved faster then a threshold.

There are pref-panes that let you disable OS X's acceleration curve, but none that allow you to substitute windows.

As far as I can tell (and this is opinion), this curve is optimized for trackpads. In my opinion, it is more then useless for mice (using a mac mouse actually damaged my mousing efficacy on windows, which really affects my work (CAD Stuff)).

Personally, I have entirely dispensed with the idea of using a mouse on OS X, and ust bought a Magic Trackpad.


Yes, using the command line of iMouseFix

The command line version of mousefix/iMouseFix is working for me on 10.6 with the Apple MagicMouse (some of the other suggested solutions don't work for the MagicMouse). I can quickly move the mouse between displays, but also do fine work with a setting of 8.

/Application/mousefix/mousefix 8

I have added the following to my .profile as they suggest in the README

FYI, The binary download is mousefix.tbz2 at http://code.google.com/p/mousefix-10-6/downloads/list.

Also see the similar question at superuser - https://superuser.com/a/446200/66255