Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center...no way to see battery and wireless strength?

On the newer products, the mice and keyboards have an LED which glows green when fresh batteries are first inserted, and flashes red as the batteries reach the end of their life.

This is why the latest Mouse and Keyboard Center does not have the older functions, BUT you are not duty bound to always install the latest drivers unless you are running an operating system which does not support older drivers.

Use the original CD which was supplied with your mouse/keyboard if you want the older features back.

You don't  HAVE  to install the Center if you don't want. You can disable the update in Windows Update, if you don't have it set to blindly install anything and everything.

The Center doesn't have the battery and wifi meters any more, but it definitely  WILL  notify you if there is a problem with either. Mine does when my mouse batteries get low, or if I move it close to being out of range.

 SC Tom

Totally agree with you. Been looking for a way to check on battery power since updating to Windows 8. Can't figure for the life of me why they would remove it. Asinine.

My Logitech mouse had it, now I have the Arc and while I find it beautiful it hasn't any led to indicate battery level and the software does not tell me. So how am I supposed to check? That's very stupid.

Well...as I said, it WASN'T Windwos Update that did it. It is whenever I rearrange the USB cables on my computer for whatever reason.

It is WAU that's doing that. It has permission (unless you've changed the settings) to automatically look for and install the latest hardware drivers whenever new hardware is installed (a different USB port qualifies as "new" hardware. Happens with my Xbox 360 controller all the time). And since it's been downloaded once and installed, the installation is still on you PC, even if you've uninstalled it in the past.
 > IT is ridiculous to have to search out old versions of software every time

my USB gets unplugged.

Once you download the appropriate versions of Intellitype and Intellipoint, all you have to do is not delete the installation files. I still have the original Intellipoint 7.1 installation file because it was the version that worked best with my MS mouse.

I do understand your frustration though; 20+ years in IS/IT taught me that :-) It seemed like every time we had all of our hardware and software working cohesively, changes would have to happen. I always went by "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unfortunately, most of this office was inhabited by mechanical and electrical engineers, and their motto was "If it ain't broke, re-design it." So it was. . .

 SC Tom