I have Vista Home Premium on a new laptop that has a Synaptic Pointing Device
pad.

Amongst other annoying features [like menu items being automatically
selected when I hover the pointer over them] I find that the pointer often
suddenly turns into what looks like a mini-scroll bar. This drives me nuts.
Can I turn it off? I can't find on it Help.

My previous computer was Windows 2000, so this pointer quirk is new too me.