One of the aspects in which the evolution of consumer technology is most evident are screens; its size, in particular. Televisions, smartphones and computer screens have been expanding their diagonal and what 15 years ago seemed ‘normal’ or even ‘big’ to us is now small. In the case at hand, PC monitors, we add the one that is not uncommon to use a second monitorwhich expands the desktop space, or ultrawide models 34 inches or larger. But with work spaces – or whatever – so large, It is not uncommon to lose sight of the mouse pointer and have to spend a few seconds locating it while shaking the device and scanning the screen with your eyes.
Although most users are unaware of it, Microsoft has thought about it, and Windows includes an option to solve this problembut even better is to use a tool like Microsoft Power Toys. We are going to explain to you how you should configure both one and the other so that finding the lost pointer on the screen is no longer a problem. nuisance and you can solve it instantly.
Find the mouse on the screen with native Windows options
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to install anything. And it is effective, although the way Windows does it is much less aesthetic than the option provided by Power Toyswhich we talk about below.
The Microsoft operating system can be configured so that pressing the CTRL key highlights the mouse pointer on the screen with a black circle that shrinks in size around the pointer. The animation lasts just over a second, enough to locate it instantly. To enable this option, you must follow these steps:
- Open the Configuration of Windows.
- Select Bluetooth and devices.
- Click Mouse.
- In the section Related configuration optionsselect Additional mouse settings.
- In the panel Mouse Properties that opens, click the tab Pointer options.
- Activate the option Show pointer location when pressing CTRL key. Then click on Apply and Accept.
Locate the mouse pointer with Microsoft Power Toys
More elegant and visually pleasing is the option provided by this ‘Swiss army knife’ of Windows configuration that is Power Toys. This Microsoft program brings together a series of utilities designed for advanced users to improve their productivity and personalize their experience, but which others can also take advantage of. And among all of them, there is that of Find my mouse.
Instead of generating a black circle around the pointer, pressing the arrow key Left CRTL 2 times darkens the screen and leaves the pointer surrounded by a circle that maintains normal brightness until the user clicks the mouse. It allows you to identify it sooner, for longer, and is more pleasing to the eye than in the previous case. To use this option, follow these steps:
- Download and install Microsoft Power Toys on your computer.
- Beam double click on the Power Toys icon which is next to the Windows clock, in the lower right corner, to open the application settings.
- In the Power Toys window, in the left column, select Mouse Utilities.
- In the section Find my mouseclick the slider corresponding to Enable Find My Mouse.
- If you want to configure how the function behaves, below you have options to set the Appearance and behavior of this feature. You can modify aspects such as activation method -you can select right CTRL instead of left, set a custom shortcut or just shake the mouse-, opacity, background and highlight color, focus radius, or animation duration.