Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000

I use this keyboard and mouse at work every day and I love it. The battery life is pretty good and I haven't noticed needing to change the battery too often. They're pretty comfortable and I haven't noticed any excruciating pain after using it for 8 hours a day. The keyboard and mouse has easy to use and very visual software to program the function keys. The screen will show you pictures of the keyboard or mouse and you click on the key you want to program. Call me a dummy, but I like the visualization.The keyboard looks pretty clean and isn't overly cluttered by buttons, which I like. It has everything you need in a nice, clean layout. I've been using the keyboard for over a year and it's holding up well. The more commonly used keys (A, S, E, etc.) have lost their textured feeling, but it doesn't really bother me. I can see how the F function keys are a little small but I personally don't use them often. I like the buttons that control my music and volume.The mouse is also a good size and has a few customizable buttons on it. I've used it on the table top directly with no problems. It also works great on my mouse pad.Overall I recommend this set and I think the price point is also a good selling point.

I already had one of these basic workhorse keyboards. When I updated the keyboard on my main computer to one with backlit keys, I moved my 5000 to work with a laptop that I have permanently set up as a little server.The backlit keyboard failed recently and I wanted an inexpensive durable replacement, one with more ergonomic structure but not so large that it would not fit in my keyboard tray. I also am now completely wedded to wireless keyboards and mice.Ordering another 5000 was just the ticket. The packaging is a little different, and my main system is now on Windows 10. No matter, it all worked. And it worked instantly and download of the necessary drivers was automatic.There is also the advantage that all of my keyboards are the same, one on an isolated Windows XP computer and now one on my main Windows 10 system. I am not using the mouse on Windows 10, continuing to use a Logitech Zoom Touch Mouse T400, perfect for Windows 8.1 and beyond. And having the two different wireless devices did not create any problems. Nor is there any kind of cross-talk among the other wireless device connections in the vicinity.I am going through a little relearning of touch patterns on this curved arrangement. I find that I am typing more quickly and the key action is noisier. It provides a more definite touch, with greater key travel as well, compared to its flat keyboard predecessor. The result seems to be more positive. I also think the key spacing is enough greater on the 5000 that I have a more-assured touch, now that I have re-adapted to it.This keyboard has more functions than I have made much use of. I tend to set up the programmable keys and then forget to use them. It would be valuable to do more.I also notice that there is no on-off on this keyboard. It is essentially on all of the time, even though I turn my computer system off at night and whenever I'm away for an extended time during the day. Yet I don't recall ever running out of battery power very often on 5000s. The one on the under-used stationary laptop seems to last a year or more. I also use rechargeable AA's in all of my battery-based devices. I am yet to replace the AAs that came with this new 5000 keyboard, and I still have the ones for the unused mouse to use up before switching to rechargeables. It may be a while.

Recently I bought a HDMI cable for my new HP Pavilion DV7 laptop so we can watch streaming TV shows from our laptop on our flat screen. However it quickly got tiring getting up every few minutes to enter in information. So I came to Amazon to research my options. After reading through a few dozen reviews I discovered some wireless keyboards and mouse combo's have a limited range, as little as 8 feet. For my needs this would be inadequate since one of our couches is at least 15 feet from the TV. Plus on top of that I have a wireless router and wireless phone so I wanted to make sure any wireless keyboard/mouse combo could do all this without creating interference. I started to look at the Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo's but the prices are extremely steep at $150-$300 more than I was willing to spend on this item. This lead me to the "Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 Keyboard and Mouse Set". It was priced at a very reasonable $60. So after reading mostly good reviews I decided to place my order.Simply put this keyboard/mouse combo is excellent, it does everything I expected it to do. For ergonomics this keyboard and mouse is as good as any I have ever used. The battery life is also decent. I have spare rechargeable batteries ready to go once the freebie batteries die but so far the freebies have lasted me for the few hours I have used the combo. The wireless range is excellent. I can get 20-25 feet and still be able to use the combo without any issues, also the wireless signal doesn't effect any of my other equipment. One feature I didn't expect but really like is the integrated zoom button located on the right side of the mouse. It's very handy when I need to read fine print on the screen. I also like how small the wireless USB transmitter for the keyboard/mouse is. Some of the combo's I checked out had this big hub with a long USB wire. Plus the little USB stick stows right into the mouse and when it's stowed it hits a switch which turns off the mouse which is very clever. I am also happy that they added volume buttons directly to the keyboard which is very handy. I haven't had a chance to program the function keys so I have no comment on that feature.That's all I have to say about this wireless keyboard/mouse combo. I recommend it to anyone who wants to hook up a laptop to their TV or they have a computer that's always connected to the TV. It has great range, the ergonomics are great, and the price is right. The only accessory I recommend is a solid (Plastic or Wood) laptop rest. It's hard to use the keyboard/mouse combo in your lap without this item in my opinion.