Surface Arc Touch Mouse not compatible on Windows 7?

Are you f*#king kidding me??!!??!!!!

A $70 mouse and it won't work with my Windows 7 work laptop???

Here I am with my Surface Pro, using it more and more for work, but with some things that I HAVE to do on my company-supplied work laptop, so unfortunately I still use both.  I'm thinking, 'Would be nice to have a mouse to use with my Surface and of course I could use it with my laptop too' and see this nice-looking Arc mouse that folds flat.  It's $70 for a mouse, but oh well, Microsoft is making some innovative and high-quality accessories now with their Surface line, so I'll mention it to my wife for Christmas.  Use it all weekend with my Surface and loving it.  Get to work this morning and think 'okay, it's a Bluetooth mouse.  I'll just pair it up... let's see now.  Hmm, what seems to be the problem.  Okay, no driver on the laptop.  No problem, search online.  See this post.  WTF!?!  Please tell me there is or will be driver or fix for this.  This is inexcusable.

I really want to see Microsoft succeed and have been a loyal supporter.  But bullsh*t like this is why I am beginning to think Microsoft can try all they want to be like Apple, but sadly, it just isn't in the cards.

I got this mouse to function on my new W7 work laptop.  I recently got a Lenovo T440s at work and wanted a nice mouse to go along with this considerably more compact laptop.

Having done some research, I found that this device is a Bluetooth SMART or LE (Low Energy) device.  This is what makes it slightly different than your standard mouse I believe.  SMART or LE Bluetooth seems to be a fairly recent innovation.  My laptop discovered and paired with the mouse without any issues, however the mouse still did not function.

I downloaded Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, hoping that it could possibly install some sort of file or driver that might wake it up to no avail.

I also played around in the "Devices and Printers" panel attempting to remove and re-add the device.

I finally noticed something in Devices and Printers.  When you click on the paired, yet not working, mouse (comes up as "Arc Touch Mouse SE") an extra menu up top labelled "Bluetooth LE Services" clicking on it brings up the dialogue attached.  Clicking "Try Again" brings it to life.

It works as expected, scrolling with haptic feedback works etc.  The only issue is that when I scroll it makes this old school audible scrolling sound along with the feedback which is kind of annoying.  It's not something you can turn off without software.

The other issue I have found is that if you turn the mouse off and back on again, or if it goes to sleep on its own, it won't reconnect with the computer properly on it's own.  You have to go back to devices and open up the "Bluetooth LE services" dialogue again.

Considering this is a travel mouse, I think I will keep it for now in the capacity it does function.  It's not ideal, but it's good enough.

That being said, this is proof positive that this device should have no issues working with any OS as long as the computer is capable of this new Bluetooth SMART/LE standard.

Mike, the only thing that makes it a Surface mouse is that it says Surface on it and is the same color.  Other than that, it really is just a Bluetooth mouse.  It works with any Bluetooth-enabled Windows 8 PC or laptop, so I don't think it's too much to ask for it to work with Windows 7, an operating system still sold and supported today. 

Not being backward-compatible with a standard technology like Bluetooth, for a high-end product like this is inexcusable.

The Arc touch mouse uses 2.4 GHz wireless via a USB dongle, and I really don't want to use up the one USB port on my Surface Pro for this. My only hope is that a driver for Windows 7 is released sometime soon.

Hi Bill,

Sorry for the delayed response. Are you referring to the Arc touch mouse that has a reference in this article?

If so, I would request you to have a look at the "Note" mentioned at the very end of the article that states that you would require a Windows 8 or 8.1 PC for you to be able to use the device.

If this is the model that you currently own, then it may not work with the Windows 7 laptop. In this case, please get in touch with the Hardware support for more help on the same.

Thank you for your cooperation.

What a shame.  It looked like a good mouse.  Paired great with my Android phone.  Not going to move to Windows8 for a mouse.   I do not know why Microsoft is so intent on craming Windows 8 down our throat.  It is a horrible product.   Many people will be converted by the time they are done.