Software

The Castor Pro comes with its own software. The first page has button remapping settings, including mouse and macro functions. The standard Windows pointer settings are present, along with the ability to adjust polling rate (125, 250, 500, or 1000 Hz). The second page includes CPI adjustment for up to five levels, adjustable in increments of 50 across the entire CPI range of 50 to 19,000 CPI. Though manually entering values is possible, doing so is incredibly difficult due to a bugged or at least weirdly behaving interface. Thus, using the slider is more convenient, albeit getting the intended value can be finicky as well. Another Windows pointer setting is present on this page, accompanied by lift-off distance (high/low), angle snapping (on/off), and ripple control (on/off) options, the latter of which controls smoothing at higher CPI levels. By enabling ripple control, jitter will be lessened, albeit at the cost of increased motion delay. Lastly, a so-called surface quality recognition tool can be run, which quantifies the quality of the mousing surface. The third page contains the lighting settings and is detailed below. The fourth page has the macro functions. Profile management is available, too.

When applied, all settings are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 18 MB on average when running in the foreground, which doesn't change when minimized to the system tray. Upon exiting the application, all processes are terminated, as they should be.

Lighting

The Castor Pro has two physical zones for RGB lighting, which are the scroll wheel and logo at the back. Within the software, one can choose between Solid, Blinking, Pulsating, and Breathing lighting effects, which are further adjustable by defining color options: solid, shifting, or individual LED. Both brightness and colors can be set. By setting brightness to zero, the lighting can be disabled altogether.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are very good throughout. Here's a short demonstration video in which I go through the Solid (shifting colors) and Breathing (shifting colors) lighting effects: