PS2 optical here - same mouse for both Socket 7 Win98 machine and P4 XP machine via a switch. It took some trial-and-error to find a PS2 mouse that worked with my Socket 7 board and DOS drivers but ultimately found this Compaq branded thing that works great. The seller had several so I bought a lifetime supply.

Definitely Intellimouse Optical, shape and side buttons are timeless. Mice I use today (Steelseries) are all shaped like Intellimouse.

I use an ancient serial mouse on my equally ancient 386 tower. Most of my older machines have PS/2 and are used via the KVM, so obviously a PS/2 mouse is used. As someone else said, serial mice won't work in safe mode.

The latest machines don't have PS/2, so USB is the only choice, and I'm likely to use a wireless mouse with them.

As for Ball vs Optical, optical wins hands down, and I'll use it if possible. Ball mice quickly gather dust and lint, then malfunction, so need to be cleaned regularly.

USB optical if the board supports it, Optical PS2 otherwise and good old serial ball 3 button mouse for pre PS2 machines.

I will use a USB to PS2 adapter if the board supports that, not all do however but since I love my USB optical mouse I give it a shot.

As for wireless ... hate it, never use it on any machine.

if its an older 98/xp machine, say something typical from P2/3 to P4 era then PS/2 mouse, anything reasonable like the Microsoft Mouse

USB is fine too. interestingly i have had a couple of late 2000's machines that can take PS/2 have trouble with USB mouse/keyboard - hanging on boot, or seeming to be waiting as swap to PS/2 and all ok again

I use a modern gaming mouse and a mechanical keyboard (both USB) on all my PCs. On the retro PCs, they run through the USB4VC which is connected to a USB Switch. (https://www.tindie.com/products/dekunukem/usb … etro-computers/). Comfort is more important to me here than period-accurate technology. Works like a charm.

Studiostriver wrote on 2024-11-03, 16:43:

the best for Windows 98

PS/2 of course - no getting stuck on hardware installation with no keyboard or mouse installed yet 😀

Even with much newer PCs and OSes, it's one or two more free USB ports, which are a much rarer commodity in the 2010s than in the 2000s (see my Asrock DeskMini, modern HP desktops, and of course most every laptop - my first one made in 2004 has 4 of them, my current 150 € used laptop has 4 but half of them are USB-C and one is occupied by the charger), and it seems that USB to PS/2 emulation still hasn't been mastered over 20 years later...

Optical is more convenient & comfortable than mechanical BUT I don't like mice anyway, Trackpoint club here 😀
I do have a mechanical mouse at my grandparents' house though, I'm not there often enough to make moving my hand around or cleaning it a chore, and together with black tape over the ethernet socket prevents complaints of "red light coming from inside the table"!

I'm a big fan of just about any mouse from Logitech. It seems their designs are the most sane ones I've seen. That being said, their ball mice from the PS/2 era are classes above anything else... and on that note, I can understand why people hate ball mice. With Logitech ball mice, a lot of the shortcomings are not there or not nearly as pronounced. For example, Logitech uses larger diameter "pickup" rollers on the ball, so the ball cannot slip like it does on other ball mice that use thinner rollers. Also, the bigger rollers are less prone to picking up dirt... and it takes a lot more time (and dirt) before the mouse starts feeling "choppy". Lastly, the larger rollers reduce the perceived DPI from the ball... but to make up for that, Logitech uses much finer pitch transfer wheels. So the end result is a mouse with overall the same (or a bit higher) DPI than other ball mice, yet a lot more precise and steady.

And for all of the above listed reason, I have still (after 25 years) not moved beyond my 2-button Logitech M-S34 ball PS/2 mouse (I'm using it on the compute I'm posting this from right now.) Yes, it does lack a scroll wheel, which is a big bummer for modern browsing (and programs that use the scroll wheel... which quite a few do.) But other than that, it's extremely comfortable (despite looking a bit "square-y") and tracks very well. Also, being PS/2, it's great for any retro machine... and also some newer PCs that still have PS/2 ports.

My 2nd favorite / pick is the Logitech M-S69. This is basically just a more round and souped-up M-S34 - it has a scroll wheel and is more rounded in the corners. Comfort-wise, I rate it a little lower than the M-S34... but still above many other modern and retro mice I have tried. Because of the scroll wheel, I use this mouse on almost every semi-modern PC that can accommodate it (with a PS/2 port.) The M-S69 is what we had on just about all of the PCs back in high school and also in university. These are really durable mice with Omron switches that can take on a lot of abuse... which is also why my M-S34 from 1999 (the one I'm using right now) is still working.

The M-S34 and M-S69 are not the only Logitech ball mice I'd consider, though. Like I said, I find just about anything from Logitech (ball or optical, PS/2 or USB) to be very competently designed.

Now I will tell you the mice I have run into that I certainly don't like: any early optical Microsoft mouse - funny, given how many people recommended it here. But I find that too many of the early optical Intellimice like to randomly "jump" to one corner of the screen every once in a while. This is on multiple different systems with completely different software and hardware and with different early Intellimouse models. I never took the time to see what causes this, but I know I'm not the only one to have ever reported this bug with early optical Microsoft Intellimouse. The latter ones seems to be a little better... though recently I found a slightly newer MS Intellimouse, and I still had it jump around on me, but just a lot more rarely than the early stuff. FWIW, it was a USB type and not PS/2. But I don't think that matters. I also have a few PS/2 ball-type MS Intellimouse and those are... crude... in comparison to Logitech. They have small diameter pickup rollers and sensitivity as well as accuracy is MEH at best.

By the way, here's a nifty little retro / "museum" -like site I found a while back that shows the insides of various retro mice:
http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Peripheral/in_mice.shtml

And speaking of that website, here's how my beloved M-S34 and M-S69 look like respectively:
http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Peripheral/Logitech/ms34.shtml
http://www.tcocd.de/Pictures/Peripheral/Logitech/ms69.shtml