Review on Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050 Black Keyboard and Mouse (PP4-00001) by Duane Hayes

Pros: Easy to install and connect. plug and play I have large hands and the shape of the Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 fits better than the Logitech M510 I have on another system. Cons: No way to manually turn off the keyboard or mouse. They hope and pray that the power saving features work as advertised and that the batteries actually last 18 months. The function keys are half the size, and instead of F1, F2, F3, etc., Microsoft has replaced them with various multimedia key functions, with anemic function key markings in faded, unreadable blue above the keys. There's no backlight, which would at least make it readable. Conclusion: It's better than the HP keyboard I used from my Pavilion Wave, which has a compact layout, and I'll keep using it for now, but I might have to buy something at some point. the rest is for my purposes. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good keyboard, a nice soft-touch palm rest, nice key action, a handy battery indicator, and plenty of programmable and pre-programmed media keys, but the lack of full-size function keys makes itself felt the way it does my workflow.