This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off displaying mouse pointer trails for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
The mouse pointer, which is sometimes referred to as the cursor, is a bitmap that specifies a focus point on the screen for user input with the mouse.
You can turn on to display pointer trails to see where the mouse is moving on the screen.
Starting with Windows 11 build 26120.3671 (Beta 24H2), build 26200.5518 (Dev), and build 27842.1000 (Canary), as part of Microsoft's ongoing work to improve settings experiences, Microsoft starting to make more mouse related settings available directly under Settings > Accessibility > Mouse and Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch without needing to go into Control Panel. This includes the settings for mouse indicator, mouse pointer trails, and further mouse behavior and pointer customization. As part of this work, Microsoft has also added the ability to adjust the amount of time needed to hover over a window to activate it, if you have activated on hover enabled. Finally, Microsoft updated the icon used for Mouse pointer speed in Bluetooth & Devices > Mouse and added an icon to the Enhance mouse pointer precision option.
Reference:
Make Windows easier to see - Microsoft Support
Learn how to make your Windows display easier to see using accessibility features for ease of access.
support.microsoft.com
Contents
- Option One: Turn On or Off Mouse Pointer Trails in Settings
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Mouse Pointer Trails in Control Panel
- Option Three: Turn On or Off Mouse Pointer Trails using REG file
1 Open Settings (Win+I).
2 Click/tap on Accessibility on the left side, and click/tap on Mouse pointer and touch on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Turn on or off (default) Mouse pointer trails for what you want. (see screenshot below)
4 If you turned on Mouse pointer trails, adjust the Mouse pointer trails length slider to what you want. (see screenshot below)
5 You can now close Settings if you like.
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Mouse icon.
2 Click/tap on the Pointer Options tab. (see screenshot below)
3 Do step 4 (on) or step 5 (off) below for what you would like to do.
4 Turn On Mouse Pointer Trails
A) Click/tap on the Pointer Options tab. (see screenshot below)
B) Check Display pointer trails under Visibility.
C) Adjust the pointer trails slider between Short to Long for how long of a pointer trail you want.
D) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 6.
5 Turn Off Mouse Pointer Trails
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Pointer Options tab. (see screenshot below)
B) Uncheck Display pointer trails under Visibility.
C) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 6.
6 You can now close the Control Panel if you like.
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you want.
2 Turn On Mouse Pointer Trails
A) Click/tap on the Download button below for the Short to Long pointer trail you want, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_short-2.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="2"OR
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_short-3.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="3"OR
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_short-4.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="4"OR
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_long-5.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="5"OR
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_long-6.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="6"OR
Turn_ON_pointer_trails_long-7.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="7"3 Turn Off Mouse Pointer Trails
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_pointer_trails.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse]
"MouseTrails"="0"4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 Either sign out and sign in or restart the computer to apply.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
