Making the Mouse Pointer More Visible

There may be times when you're working on your computer and you lose track of where the mouse pointer is. (This can be a huge problem when you are using your system at a high screen resolution.) Or perhaps you just want it to be a more obvious pointer than what is set up as the default. There are a few things you can do to make the mouse pointer more visible.

If the problem is that you just want to be able to more easily locate the pointer (you can easily lose track of it when you've got multiple windows up or are working on multiple displays), you can make it easy to find by taking the following steps:

1. Display the Control Panel.
2. Click the Hardware and Sound category.
3. Click the Mouse link, under the Devices and Printers category. Windows displays the Mouse Properties dialog box.
4. Make sure the Pointer Options tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Pointer Options tab of the Mouse Properties dialog box.

5. Select the Show Location of Pointer When I Press the CTRL key check box.
6. Click OK.

With this small change, you can quickly locate the mouse pointer just by pressing Ctrl key. Windows displays a small animation around the pointer; it looks like a circle that moves inward toward the pointer.

There are several other options you can select to make the mouse pointer more visible as you're working. You can change the size of the pointer, change its color, enable shadows, and display pointer trails. To change any or all of these settings, display the Control Panel, click the Ease of Access category, and then click Ease of Access Center. If you scroll down in the options, you'll see the "Make the Mouse Easier to Use" link, which you should click. From here you can change the pointer's size and color. To set the other options, click the "Mouse Settings" link, which again takes you to the Mouse Properties dialog box where you can enable shadows (on the Pointers tab) and set the system to display pointer trails (on the Pointer Options tab).

 This tip (12265) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.