How to Change Mouse Polling Rate in Vista

This guide is, in its entirety, taken from Jim’s thread over at OverClock3d.

These files will increase your USB polling frequency from the Windows Vista default of 125hz to 500hz or 1000hz making your mouse much more responsive in gaming. This file will only work on the RTM/Final version of Vista 32-Bit and 64-bit. If you want the same hack under Windows XP just search google for “XP usbport.sys 500hz”.

1. Restart Vista and repeatedly press F8 to bring up the boot menu. Select Safe Mode.
2. Press Start > Run… and enter this into the box: bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS . This disabled the constant integrity checks that will disable you from overwriting system files. After the restart, it is set back to default.
3. Open the same window and this time enter this: takeown /f "C:WindowsSystem32Driversusbport.sys" . This commands lets you take full ownership of the usbport.sys file, enabling you to rename it.
4. Again, in the Run… box enter this: cacls "C:WindowsSystem32Driversusbport.sys" /G username:F . Replace username with the account you’re using on Windows. This further makes sure you are allowed to edit and rename the file.
5. Open C:WindowsSystem32Drivers and locate the existing usbport.sys, and rename it to usbport.old
6. Download this file, unzip it and copy the usbport.sys from the appropriate folder over to C:WindowsSystem32Drivers.
7. Restart your computer, and use mouserate.exe to check whether the settings have had effect.

Hope this helped you!