The Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 4000 is one of the cheaper keyboard mice combos around, but that doesn't make it a bad choice. The Wireless Comfort Keyboard 4000 is a little heavy, and the feel of the keys isn't all that great there's not enough feedback. A padded strip forms the palm-rest as well as the base of the keyboard-it's comfortable, but might wear out over time.





There is an F-Lock key that is used to disable the function keys and use their alternative func¬tions. Tasks like undo, redo, open, close, and save can be done by a single press of a button. What can cause chaos is that there is no indicator for the F-Lock key, so you could inadvertently call a function key when trying to accomplish one of these shortcuts. There is an on-screen indicator that's displayed briefly when you turn F-Lock on or off. In fact, all notifications are done on screen-but not by an OSD like on the Logitech ones. This is irritating, say when playing a game¬when you accidentally press [Caps Lock] or [Num Lock], it shows up and interrupts your game. Fortunately, you can turn this it off from the driver controls, but then you're back to square one with the F-Lock problem. The mouse is fairly light and has no delay, which actually makes it pretty good for gaming.

It feels good to hold as well. One bad thing gamers will immediately notice is the lack of feedback when scrolling-smooth scroll¬ing is terrible for gamers who use the scroll wheel to switch weapons. Those who work on spreadsheets will be happy with the side scrolling option, but will again find feedback lacking.

The range for the devices isn't all that great-a metre or two and you're out of range, and signs of delay are obvious; you start missing out on characters when typing. Two soft¬ware packages are installed to set up the keyboard and mouse, and are used to customise the "My Favorites" buttons for custom applications and other buttons.

The price is Rs 4,545, and this makes a very good value-for-money bundle though not as practical as a Bluetooth combo set. The set is a big no-no for those with HTPCs who want to sit quite a distance from their PCs. However, if you never move more than a few feet away Overall from the computer, this set is a good buy.