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Getting MS Mouse&Keyboard Center Version Info

Trolling my usual news sources this morning, I noticed a story at OnMSFT.com. It reported a new version of the Mouse and Keyboard Center software was out, with support for ARM64 processors, as well as x64 and x86 CPUs. Sure enough, if you visit the MS Mouse and Keyboard Center download page, you’ll see it’s been updated as of 1/15/2020. It also includes links for 32 and 64 bit versions, plus an ARM64 version, as shown in the following screencap. This raised an interesting question (for me, anyway): which version of the software was this? Alas, getting MS Mouse&Keyboard Center version info proved a little trickier than I expected it to be.

As you can see, no info about version numbers in the download links. Nothing else on the rest of that page, either.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

Getting MS Mouse&Keyboard Center Version Info Isn’t Easy

If you grab the link address for the 64-bit download, it reads: “https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=849754.” This likewise says nothing about the software version. But the resulting file that downloads is named “MouseKeyboardCenter_64bit_ENG_12.181.exe”. This actually provides a bit of a clue. After running this installer, the Support link at the top right of the UI includes “About Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center” as a selectable option. Click that, and you see some version info — namely:

It’s not the prettiest “About” window I’ve ever seen, but it does say 12.181.137.0. That’s it!

Strange that it took so much rooting around to get this info from the tool itself, and that MS didn’t choose to make it more readily available. Norton File Insight coughed up the details immediately, with a single right-click selection in File Explorer:

It’s always a little off-putting when a third-party tool says more and works better, than built-in MS capabilities.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

But, as is nearly always the case in Windows 10, where there’s sufficient will, there’s a way to get the info one needs. I still think it’s weird that MS makes you install the software before you can tell (completely, anyway) which version it is. But so it goes, here in Windows World. Sigh.

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