The mouse comes in three flavors: standard, cordless, and bus mouse. The standard mouse connects to a port on your PC with a cord. The cordless mouse works like your VCR remote. It sends infrared signals to a small receiver which is connected to your PC. The bus mouse connects to your motherboard's bus through an expansion card.

The standard mouse comes in two versions: PS/2 mouse, and serial mouse. These are named after the port they connect to. The PS/2 mouse is more common with the serial mouse coming in second. The bus mouse comes in third. It is useful when you do not have a PS/2 port, and you are using all of your serial ports. The bus mouse is not as popular because it takes up an expansion slot.

The mouse contains a ball underneath that rolls when you move the mouse. This ball moves "sensors" that send electronic signals to your PC. Your PC translates these signals into the movement of the mouse cursor.

Underneath each mouse button are switches, which also send a signal to your PC, every time you press a button. Your PC interprets these signals accordingly, depending where your mouse cursor is on your screen.

In order for you PC to understand the signals from your mouse, a special piece of software called mouse driver is installed. This driver is easily able to interpret all mouse movement. Each mouse manufacturer provides their own mouse drive for their product.