Reported by Anonymous

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Disconnect the trackball from the system. Run a serial mouse extender cable from one of your computer's serial ports to a place on your desk behind your keyboard. Connect a standard serial mouse (I used an old 2 button mouse with a sticky ball) to the extender cable that is detected by Windows 2000 as a Microsoft serial mouse (No serial mice we have are detected as a standard serial mouse.) If the mouse is not detected navigate to Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management, highlight device manager with the arrow keys, press tab once to highlight your computer's name, and use Shift+F10 to select Scan for hardware changes. Finally remove the serial mouse from the extender cable and replace it with the trackball using an adapter if needed.


If this works your mouse pointer will remain present and functional after the pointing device switch until you scan for hardware changes or reboot the system. To stop the plug play removal detection during each reboot swap your trackball for the serial mouse prior to starting a reboot and back after the post reboot logon prompt appears.