Windows just made it easier to find your lost mouse pointer

Now there’s an easy way to find your mouse pointer in Windows 10 and 11 without having to wave your mouse to find it.

The technology of finding mouse pointers is not new and Windows 10 has quietly added it as a built-in features. All you need to do is tick “Show the position of the cursor when I press the CTRL key” in the Pointer Options under the Additional Mouse Options tab. This method works, but all it does is place a black circle around the pointer and is easy to miss on a cluttered screen.

Newer Find My Mouse in Microsoft’s PowerToys application is much simplified, dim the screen to highlight your cursor with two presses of the CTRL button.

If you want to set this up, go to PowerToys Settings from the Start menu:

• Open Powertoys and click on Mouse Extensions on the left side.

• In the mouse extensions, click the slider labeled Enable Find My Mouse.

• Pressing the CTRL key twice will darken the screen and highlight the mouse pointer. Returning the screen to normal is easy by moving the pointer around for a few seconds, left- or right-clicking the mouse, or pressing the CTRL key twice in a row.

This utility might not be too useful if you have a single monitor, but multi-monitor users may find it a quicker alternative to wagging the mouse around.

If you already have PowerToys installed, it might be worth it too other utilities to improve your Windows experience. FancyZones and Image Resizer are just a few tools that you can use with PowerToys. FancyZones allows you to create custom layouts for different programs, while Edit image Can simultaneously resize multiple images.