How To Use Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard Manual
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Review: Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard Microsoft’s new SideWinder X4 gaming keyboard does away with “ghosting,” but how does it compare to the flagship SideWinder X6? By James Pikover Feb.
I have a MicrosoftSidewinder X4 keyboard and I use the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center (KB Center) to manage macros. Most of the time I create/modify macros manually using KB Center. More recently, I have started to create macros using the other option, macro recording.
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To record a macro I use the following keyboard key sequence:
Bank Switch [If Necessary]->Macro Record->Macro Key (1 of the 6) [Recording Starts]->(Do Something)->Macro Record [Recording Stops]
After the macro has been recorded, I go back to KB Center and select basic settings, then choose the appropriate Bank (depending on which bank I chose in the steps above). Next, I scroll down the menu to find the S-key that I just recorded the macro to and I can see the new macro (usually something like Macro 0001).
Microsoft Sidewinder Keyboard Software
I have repeated the recording steps above using either a different Bank or different macro key and verified that the newly recorded macro is in the right Bank and is assigned to the right S-key..
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard Software
I always play an online game and today I wanted to start using my Sidewinder X4 to record macros dedicated to this game only. To do so, in KB Center I selected app-specific settings then clicked Add New to add my game application. After my game was added I made sure to select the game by clicking the little application icon that KB Center puts on the main screen.
The first thing I noticed was that there is no Bank selection like there is in the basic settings section. I then scrolled down the menu to the S-key section and noticed that there were just the 6 S-keys (1-6) and nothing related to Banks.
Q. My first question is, why aren't there 3 Banks available in the app-specific settings section of KB Center when there are 3 Banks available in the basic settings section?
This got me to wondering, if I use the record feature to create and assign a macro to an S-key with app-specific settings selected in KB Center what will happen if I select Bank 2 or Bank 3 using the Bank Switch keyboard key before recording. (I assumed Bank 1 was the default bank for the app-specific settings section since there was no Bank selection menu.)
I started to check what happens for various Bank selections while recording macros. Part of my test was to record the macros while the Notepad application was active and in front. Another part of my test was to record macros with my game active and in front.
One thing I immediately noticed was that, if I have the app-specific settings section of KB Center and my game selected and record a macro with Notepad active and in front the macro does not show up in the section of KB Center dedicated to my game, it shows up in the basic settings section (under the appropriate Bank).
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This leads to my next set of questions..
Q. Does KB Center ignore the Bank selection while recording a macro for a specific application or do I always have to make sure that Bank 1 is selected using the Bank Switch keyboard key? If recording a macro for a specific application does KB Center make sure that this application is active and in front before allowing a macro to be recorded? If the specific application is not active and in front does KB Center default to putting the macro in the basic settings section or does it just drop it?
Another issue I ran into was that when I recorded macros with my game active and in front nothing happened. The macro doesn't show up in either the basic settings or app-specific settings section. I experimented with using all 3 Banks but the result was always the same, no macro was saved.
The game that I am trying to record macros for uses a program called GameGuard to prevent people from hacking the game. It stops people from being able to use mouse recorders, key mappers, etc. From what I understand GameGuard is very effective and difficult to bypass.
Q. Could it be GameGuard that is stopping my macros from being recorder? Is GameGuard somehow preventing KB Center from detecting keyboard input and therefore preventing it from recording anything (because there is nothing to record)?
I thought keyboards that support macro recording (like the Sidewinder X4) recorded and saved macros inside the keyboard itself and not by monitoring operating system events. From what I understand these kinds of keyboards can bypass programs like GameGuard because events are captured well before reaching the operating system.
Q. My final question is, does the Sidewinder X4 keyboard use internal software/memory to record macros or does it depend entirely on the KB Center application? If the later is the case, I don't think I am going to be able to get macros to work for my game since GameGuard seems to be preventing KB Center from detecting any keyboard events. My only option is probably going to be spending a lot more money on a higher end macro keyboard that records/stores macros internally.
Thank you.
~M
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Windows 8 (32-bit only)
Windows 7 (32-bit only)
Windows Vista (32-bit only)
Windows XP (32-bit only)
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Windows 8 (64-bit only)
Windows 7 (64-bit only)
Windows Vista (64-bit only)
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Windows 8 (32-bit only)
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