If you were to ask any new MSI Wind owner if they had just one complaint about their netbook, you'd hear the same complaint repeatedly.
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MSI recently changed to a new supplier (Sentellic) for the touchpads of the U100 line of netbooks. While these touchpads are not terrible, they offer slightly different functionality over the tried-and-true Synaptics touchpad found on most other laptops. The Synaptics version offers an area on the side of the pad that allows the user to scroll up and down within pages simply by sliding their finger up and down. Unfortunately, due to legal issues, the Sentellic pad cannot offer the same functionality. Instead, they have put tap areas that are used to tap up and down within pages.
This may be fine for some users, but I was very used to the Synaptics way on all of my other laptops. A user named cptskippy over at the MSIWind.net Forums has discovered that a replacement Synaptics touchpad online from Asus for the low price of $8. DXMiller then posted that he had also discovered this replacement and had already installed it with full functionality. The installation requires almost complete disassembly of the Wind, but in return gives that familiar experience without any outward appearance of anything different. I have placed an order for a replacement pad for my own personal Wind, and plan to do the install once it arrives.
I've already done a few upgrades on my Wind such as 2GB RAM and dual boot XP and Vista Ultimate but I think this is going to be the best mod yet.
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