HOWTO get X-Mouse functionality in Windows Vista RTM

If you’re like me, you hate the windowing methodology that comes with using any operating system microsoft puts out. I thought I would share a quick registry hack that will make your life much easier. The following was taken from vistababble.com.
In WinXP we could enable this by using the Power Toys. The Power Toys don’t seem to work to enable this feature in Vista, but you can still have this if you like by doing the below, but before proceeding remember to back up these registry entries first in case something goes wrong:

(This reg entry change not only makes the window active but makes it the forground window by bringing it foward on top of other windows when the mouse is over it.)

1. Open up Regedit and browse to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

2. Look for the REG_Binary key “UserPreferencesMask” in the right pane. You will see its value as a string of hex numbers. Mine was hex 98,12,03,80,10,00,00,00.

3. Next you need to add the hex value ’41′ to the first hex value on the left in the hex string found in step 2.
Using the hex string I have as an example: 98h + 41h = d9h. You can use the Calculator (in scientific mode) in Vista to do this simple addition. My new hex value, using my example, string now becomes d9,12,03,80,10,00,00,00

4. Next, Right click on the “UserPreferencesMask” key and choose ‘Modify’,then alter the original value of
“UserPreferencesMask” to your new value found in step 3.

5. Next, at the same [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] registry location right click in the right pane and choose to add a new DWORD (32-bit) value and name this value “ActiveWndTrkTimeout”. Next right click on your new “ActiveWndTrkTimeout” DWORD and choose modify and put in the time (in milliseconds) that suits you for the mouse switching between windows.

6. Close Regedit and re-boot.

Now for multiple windows open on the desktop, the window the mouse pointer is on will become the active window and come to the foreground without having to click on it. You may need to play with the value for “ActiveWndTrkTimeout” a little to get it correct. These are the values (below) I used to test with and the time for the mouse to remain over a window before its bought forward is 3 seconds (3000 miliseconds). Experiment with your time and find something that suits you: