If you are someone who loses your mouse pointer all the time or just want to highlight it when you create video guides for YouTube. This article will show you how to quickly and easily highlight your mouse pointer "aka" mouse cursor on Windows 10 and 11.
Takeaways:
- Learn how to highlight your mouse pointer on Windows.
- The quickest and easiest way to highlight your mouse cursor on Windows.
Table of Contents
How to Highlight Mouse Pointer Mouse Cursor on Windows 10 & 11
For this to work you'll need to get the official Microsoft PowerToys addon for Windows. It adds a ton of extra options to Windows.
- Download Microsoft PowerToys
- Visit the Microsoft PowerToys page.
- Click Install PowerToys and follow the instructions.
- If directed to a different page, select the 64-bit download.
- Alternatively, you can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store. (The first method is better)
- Once the download completes, install PowerToys by following the on-screen prompts.
- After installation, open PowerToys by typing PowerToys into the Start menu.
Configure PowerToys to Highlight your Mouse Cursor on Windows.
When PowerToys opens, you'll see a Dashboard with many options. A lot of features are enabled by default. You may not need all of them, so it’s a good idea to turn off the ones you don’t plan to use. Some other useful tools include
- FancyZones (for customizable window snapping)
- Text Extractor (to copy text from images)
- Screen Ruler (to measure elements on your screen)
Enable and Configure the “Find My Mouse” Tool
- Locate Find My Mouse in the PowerToys dashboard.
- Turn it on and customize its behaviour.
- To use: Press Control twice or shake your mouse to make a circle appear around the cursor.
- You can customize the appearance by changing the background colour, spotlight colour, and zoom.
- If you're playing games, you can exclude specific apps like halflife.exe so the circle doesn’t appear during gameplay.
Mouse Highlighter
- Enable the Mouse Highlighter feature.
- To activate it: Press Start + Shift + H.
- This leaves a circle around the location where you click:
- Left-click creates one colour circle.
- Right-click creates a different colour.
- You can hold and drag to highlight a trail. However, this feature may not be necessary for everyone.
How does Mouse Hight work on Windows? Is Mouse Highlight included by default?
Mouse Highlight on Windows helps users visually track their mouse cursor by displaying a highlighted circle or visual effect around it when clicked or moved. This feature is especially useful for presentations or for users with vision impairments.
However, Mouse Highlight is not included by default in Windows. To enable this functionality, you need to use third-party tools like Microsoft PowerToys, which includes a "Mouse Highlighter" feature. Once installed, you can customize the mouse highlight's colour, size, and effect, making it easier to find and track your cursor during various tasks.
