The red accent stripe that runs down the center of the Sidewinder is raised slightly thus providing you with an orientation point for your hand on the mouse. The square button located at the near-end of the red stripe is the Mouse Properties access button in Windows XP and takes you to Games Explorer in Windows Vista..

The control panel has every conceivable option imaginable to insure the mouse does what you want it to do and with the least amount of work.  Also placed on the red strip are three micro-switch with back-lit red LEDs. The buttons are how you change the DPI resolution on the mouse.  These buttons can also be used on the Fly or in other words it can be changed in the middle of a game without the need to exit the game.