How to quickly find mouse pointer location on Windows 11

<!–

–>

On Windows 11, whether you have a multi-monitor setup or a single large display, sometimes, you may lose sight of the mouse pointer on the screen, and you would typically shake the mouse until you find it again.

Although that’s a natural behavior, Windows 11 has a feature in the mouse settings to quickly find the pointer, showing a ripple animation on the screen when pressing the Ctrl key.

If you use PowerToys, you can also enable the “Find My Mouse” feature that similarly lets you find the mouse pointer pressing the Ctrl key twice. The difference is that the PowerToys feature is a modern take of the feature available on Windows, and it allows you to customize the experience, such as color, size, and animation duration.

In this guide, you will learn two ways to find your mouse on Windows 11.

Find mouse pointer location with PowerToys on Windows 11

If you choose to use the feature available with PowerToys, you first need to install the application from the Microsoft Store, or you can also use the winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys command to install the app from Command Prompt.

To enable the find my mouse feature for Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open PowerToys.

2. Click on Mouse utilities.

3. Under the “Find My Mouse” section, turn on the Enable Find My Mouse toggle switch.

   

After you complete the steps, when you can’t find the mouse on the screen, press the Ctrl key twice to highlight the mouse location on the screen.

.Windows_Software_Technology-Big-343 { display:inline-block; width: 300px; height: 600px; } @media(min-width: 500px) { .Windows_Software_Technology-Big-343 { width: 300px; height: 600px;} }

Optionally, under the “Appearance & behavior” section, you can customize the experience. For example, the Overlay opacity lets use a slider to adjust the transparency of the highlight. The Background color and Spotlight color options let you create custom highlight colors when finding your mouse.

Appearance & behavior settings

In addition, there is an option to control the spotlight radius, initial zoom, and duration of the animation.

Find mouse pointer location on Windows 11

Alternatively, you can also use the legacy mouse settings to enable the option to show the pointer location on the screen.

To enable the find mouse pointer feature on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Settings on Windows 11.

2. Click on Personalization.

3. Click the Themes page on the right side.

4. Click on Mouse Cursor.

   

5. Click the Pointer Options tab.

6. Under the “Visibility” section, check the Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key option.

   

7. Click the Apply button.

8. Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, the next you lose sight of the pointer, press the Ctrl key on the keyboard to activate the visual aid to find the mouse pointer wherever it might be on the screen.

While this guide is focused on Windows 11, you can also use these features on Windows 10.