If your computer has a large screen and it is cluttered with desktop shortcuts, multiple windows and other programs, then you might find it difficult to locate the mouse pointer in this over-crowded Windows screen. Even if you move your mouse, the pointer seems to be hidden behind some shadow and is not easy to notice at all. What you can do is to change a few settings in Windows so that it can highlight the mouse pointer when you use a hotkey on your keyboard. Here is how :
- Open the Run dialog in Windows by pressing the Windows logo key + R key combination on your keyboard. In the Run dialog, type main.cpl and press Enter. This would open the Mouse Properties window.
- In the Mouse Properties window, switch to the Pointer Options tab. At the bottom of the window are two options : Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key and Display pointer trails. Place a checkmark in both options and click on the Apply button to enable them.
- Now if you cannot find your mouse cursor in your crowded screen, just press the Ctrl key on your keyboard. Windows will draw concentric circles around your mouse pointer, so that you can easily locate it. If you have enabled the Display pointer trails option, then it would drag trails of your pointer as you move it around – making it a little bit more noticeable.
So this is how you can make Windows highlight your lost cursor on a muddled up screen. One more trick you can use is to use a large size cursor scheme. You can find the cursor schemes in the Pointer tab in the Mouse Properties window that you opened in the instructions above. A larger pointer is easier to notice than a smaller pointer that is used by default in Windows.