Horrendous K90 software makes me want to cry

[Kron]

As you may have guessed from my very descriptive title, I have a gripe about the software included with my K90 gaming keyboard.

 

I would like to start off by telling that the keyboard itself is amazing. It is exactly what I had been looking for:

• Mechanical
  
• Backlit
  
• Macro keys
  
• Media keys (very important to me)
  
• Very easy to clean
  
• No glossy plastic (and please, never ever start using glossy plastic on keyboards as finger prints all over a > €100 costing keyboard looks stupid)
  

The facts that you're actually working with instead of against your customers on the Vengeance headset's surround issue and improved versions of the K90 keyboard and M60 mice, just show that you really care about us and are willing to help us get the most out of our purchases.

 

Now, on to the list of issues I have with the keyboard software.

 

General Window Design

Do you remember the Windows Media Player and WinAmp skins from the days of old? I've included an example below as a friendly reminder of how silly they look.

http://cdn.blogsdna.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/cool-windows-media-player-skins-wml-11.jpg

 

I kind of compare your macro recording software with these as it may look 'cool' to some people (it's not for me, unfortunately) but it's a clear example of "function fits form". Shouldn't it be the other way around?

 

Now, I understand that there is some kind of extension/continuation of the product branding going on here but this is just a little bit silly.

 

It looks completely out of place as a regular desktop application because all the standard window elements you come to expect from a modern windows application have been done away with:

• The top bar that normally houses the program's name and window control buttons is replaced with a metallic looking bar covered with out of place glows and empty areas
  
• There's no window border and no option to resize it
  
• The borders of the window aren't anti-aliassed and I can actually see pixels on the rounded corners lol
  
• The custom name you can give to a macro is shown in a small text field somewhere to the right, above the playback options instead of right above the macro itself. This text field doesn't expand to the right when the text doesn't fit while there's plenty of unused space there
  
• The big "MR" button as well as the Corsair logo and name actually look blurry
  
• The part of the window in which you see what keys the macro's press isn't resizeable but more on this later
  

Keys

Okay, it looks exactly like the actual keys do on my K90 keyboard.

 

It looks like you've tried to make it as clear as possible which button in the software correlates with which hardware button on the keyboard itself. This is overkill because the buttons on the keyboard have their designation laser etched in them. It would be sufficient to just have a straight list with just text. I would much rather see the space that this graphic representation takes up in the window, used for something else like an expansion of the used buttons area.

 

Used Buttons

I'm talking about the part of the window that shows what button the currently selected macro is using. It also allows you to edit previously recorded macros and it shows what you're doing while you're recording a macro.

 

In a nutshell: It's way too small, doesn't allow direct text input and it keeps jumping back to the top after an edit to an existing macro.

 

When I tried making a recruitment message for a game I used to play into a macro, I had to hit the record button and type the message right the first time because it would take ages to correct the message by editing the separate key-presses later. For a long macro, the window keeps jumping back to the top after every single edit so you actually have to scroll down and find the place where you made your last edit to the macro to continue every single time. This could have been so much easier if the program just allowed direct text input. I can also think use of the macro keys when working with computer code, macro in snippets for example.

 

Being able to resize this area and toggle the display of delays between key-presses are things I seriously dream about, too.

 

Playback Options

No tooltips for the buttons, more empty spaces, very limited options, etc.

 

I've managed to figure out how it works by now (after ages of trial and error, maybe I'm just stupid) and have decided that it takes up a lot of window space for what it does.

 

The functionality is very limited and very badly explained.

 

Miscellaneous

• Recording macros with the game open often doesn't work, even with hardware playback enabled (Skyrim for example)
  
• Media keys don't work with some applications open
  
• The "On-Screen Display" option crashes certain programs
  
• Unable to connect a macro key profile to the windows desktop (for windows shortcuts)
  
• Macro keys can't be set as generic buttons for use as push to talk or record button
  

Cessation

Redesigning the software from the ground up, and this time with a more minimalistic and 'form fits function' approach, would be an amazing early birthday present for me. People might actually enjoy recording macros for these great keyboards when they're accompanied by great software!

 

Of course, I would be very happy to provide additional thoughts regarding and am open for discussion on this matter if anyone (fellow customers or Corsair employees) would like this. I also feel the need to apologise for possibly being a bit vague or incomplete about some presented subjects as English isn't my first language.

[frogl]

I'm experimenting with the software for my M65 and so far I've had one problem.

I created a simple macro that opens up notepad and types a sentence, and I choose that this should only happen once.

But as it is done typing it just repeated the letter D over and over again and there was no way to stop it other than to unplug the mouse.

I was using "Hardware Playback". The mouse is plugged in to the usb port on my K60 keyboard.

 

I don't know if this has to do with the software or the fact that it is plugged in to my keyboard, I would believe it doesn't matter, isn't it just like a USB extension cord?

[eternitykh]

the software isn't very intuitive, it took me a while to know what i was actually doing.

 

it's not really documented at all, just kind of have to experiment or read from other user's experience on it.

 

great hardware, but the software is lacking.

 

and as for the repeating thing, you have to change the macro's input/keystroke mode, or something like that, there's an option for how it ends, or repeats or something like that. i can't remember on top of my head.

 

and yeah the media keys dont work with some programs opened or while active, im not sure if that's corsair's issue or window's issue.

[RAM GUY]

@frogl, what button did you bind the macro to?

 

@eternitykh, The Media keys use default Window HID service so if a software blocks that, our keyboard media keys wouldn't function.

[aegisk]

Agreed... I'm appalled by the terrible quality of the software bundled with such an otherwise impressive piece of kit. When looking at the UX of the software it almost seems like the company was trying to play a joke on us :[pouts: Just an example... opening the software from the system bar is absurd: you first have to click on an icon to open a menu that has only *one* option(!) and then click again to actually open the dashboard. This software makes it impossible to recommend it to anybody looking for a good macro-enabled keyboard.

 

Functionally what drives me crazy at the moment is I can't for the life of me get a macro key to launch an application under Windows 7 (64-bit). Any ideas? Tried activating "Hardware Playback", saving the profile to the keyboard memory, etc. Nothing works. Something as simple as this should *always* work without any kind of tricks or anything else. Only opening the pre-defined programs (Explorer, etc) works.

[Kron]

Even though it wasn't completely unexpected, I'm happy to see that I'm not alone with these experiences.

[RAM GUY]

Agreed... I'm appalled by the terrible quality of the software bundled with such an otherwise impressive piece of kit. When looking at the UX of the software it almost seems like the company was trying to play a joke on us :[pouts: Just an example... opening the software from the system bar is absurd: you first have to click on an icon to open a menu that has only *one* option(!) and then click again to actually open the dashboard. This software makes it impossible to recommend it to anybody looking for a good macro-enabled keyboard.

 

Functionally what drives me crazy at the moment is I can't for the life of me get a macro key to launch an application under Windows 7 (64-bit). Any ideas? Tried activating "Hardware Playback", saving the profile to the keyboard memory, etc. Nothing works. Something as simple as this should *always* work without any kind of tricks or anything else. Only opening the pre-defined programs (Explorer, etc) works.

 

You can't use hardware playback to launch applications (Windows OS Limitation). In order to open the program, you must link directly to the .exe (and make sure hardware playback is unchecked). Let me know what program doesn't open and I can see if I can verify it.

[aegisk]

Thanks a lot for the reply, it worked! I had quite a few issues when using the keyboard without hardware playback though (my CTRL key was automatically activating without reason, causing my escape key to open the start menu, etc.) so I gave up on it.. I just re-installed windows so I will give it a try again.

 

The problem with these kinds of issues is... it's often unclear why things happen, something that should absolutely never be the case when using well designed software. Why didn't the software tell me that I could not use the launch application option when having HP turned on? Maybe I missed it and clicked it away the first time it happened, but the point is... the action in question should just not be available when the HP option is selected as this is a known issue, etc.

[aegisk]

Also... how would I get a shortcut to launch? I want to do things like:

 

"DisplaySwitch.exe /clone"

 

But this does not seem to work...

[aegisk]

I just found a workaround for it: create a .bat file for it and launch that from a macro.

 

Again, should not require a work around!

[Toasted]

Just a note, The Launch feature for the K90 will not work under hardware playback as it is a Windows limitation.

[nekoexp]

Bought my first Corsair input device very recently, gotta agree that the user interface needs a simplification.

 

Its kinda odd to have a Cancel and Close button but no OK, or Apply ..., I subconsciously select Close all the time since the other option was Cancel .. usually its OK CANCEL and Apply.

 

A box design for the UI would be better than the round-ish shape right now.

[TheoParke]

I too have had problems with the macro-making software. But I realized that the software could be vastly improved with the addition of just one feature: a Type Text Macro maker.

 

Could a future version of the software have a Type Text Macro thing that would allow us to type text into a box, allow us to edit it, and then let us bind that text to a G key? The software would be a lot more useful for me that way, since most of my macros are text-related.

 

As an aside, I noticed last night that the firmware update came with a new instruction manual. This manual was very helpful for me in figuring out the software (better than I already had), and I also learned that saving the macros to the keyboard itself was helpful in getting around certain compatibility issues. So for folks having difficulty getting their programmed macros to work in certain games, see if saving the profile to the hardware doesn't fix that.

[kilometer18]

I truly don't understand why there isn't just a true "bind keystroke" option like there is with Logitech's software. If I wanted to bind G1 on my G510 to, say, ctrl+shift+alt+F1 I just press the key combination and it will just

bind it to that. (P.S. binding G3 to "Q" or "5" like the user guide uses as an example is not useful)

 

6. Press the keyboard key you would like to bind to G3, and then press OK. In this

example we are using 5.

7. Now click Close.

8. That’s it! You’ve assigned your first keystroke and now it’s time to test it out. Open

Notepad or Word (or your favorite text editor), start a new document, and then press G3

on your Vengeance K90. You should see the number 5 appear as if you were typing it.

 

Is this a joke? Why would we want to bind something out of the way of our normal typing to a single character or key?

 

Same thing with block text like the OP said.

 

Forcing us to record everything is extremely annoying and makes it a nightmare to actually edit anything we've already recorded. We can't even hit the delete key to delete a line in a macro, we need to right-click -> select delete.

For this example, let’s first add a couple of keystrokes to change the macro from creating “Hello World” to “A Jello World”. Start by right-clicking on the first occurrence of  0.050 seconds delay (just below  LShift) to open the edit menu, which looks like this:

6. We will be adding a keypress, so select Insert  Key and the following dialog box will appear:

7. Enter the letter A, click OK and then select the  A

8. Now click Insert Delay, which inserts the default 50ms delay.

9. We’ve added the keypress of the letter A and now we need to enter the keyrelease. Right-click on the delay you just added, select Insert  Key, enter A in the dialog box and then click OK.

10. Add another delay by right-clicking the  A entry and selecting Insert Delay.

11. Do this same sequence to insert the space character: Insert  Key, press the space bar and OK, Insert Delay, Insert  Key, press the space bar and OK, and then Insert Delay to create the sequence that inserts a space.

 

How intuitive! /sarcasm

 

But in all seriousness, even in this simple example where we only need to edit 3 characters it takes like 20 clicks and 60 seconds. It would be faster to just re-record the entire macro.

 

Protip (it's Logitech's):

http://www.vortez.net/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=9316

 

Note the Keystroke, Multi Key and Text Block functions. The only option the existing K90 software has is Logitech's Multi Key (i.e. record what you want to type). Okay, technically there is a keystroke option like I mentioned, but it lets you bind literally one key.

 

It mostly blows my mind that this software has remained in this state since the product's release. Or maybe this is an updated version of the original software (that's a scary thought). Frankly, software this terrible makes the macro keys borderline nonfunctional, which is why I seldom use them. If I want to spam a block of text in World of Warcraft it would be less trouble to copy+paste instead of waste 10 minutes attempting to correctly type out the entire thing in one try with no mistakes. I sure hope there will be a software redesign coinciding with the release of the K95, otherwise I might just ask my brother to give me back my G510...

[Kron]

Very disappointed that this thread is just being ignored by the software developers :/

 

I had really hoped that we might get into contact with some of them or at the very least get some confirmation that they're not happy with the current state of their software either and that they're looking into improving it.

[RAM GUY]

This is a Tech Support forum so unfortunately you won't get any responses from the product teams. I have, however, passed on your comments already as feedback. Unfortunately, we can't do anything else more as we don't comment on future or unreleased products, including software.

[Kron]

This is a Tech Support forum so unfortunately you won't get any responses from the product teams. I have, however, passed on your comments already as feedback. Unfortunately, we can't do anything else more as we don't comment on future or unreleased products, including software.

 

Sorry for my late reply.

 

I really do appreciate this and I guess I'll just wait for some better software to be released in the future. I'm also sorry to say that I'm very likely going to stay away from any Corsair gaming peripherals until the software that comes with it is improved.