Mouse Properties on a Windows Computer

Windows does allows you to configure your Mouse from the Windows Control Panel. Tweaking Mouse Properties are many times required and can be fun as well. Changing Mouse Cursor to standard Windows Cursor or switching to a Big Mouse Cursor or even an animated Mouse Cursor can be done for fun and can be really useful depending on your Display Resolution and purpose of your Computer.

Mouse Properties in Windows Control Panel
Mouse Properties in Windows Control Panel

In case you are new to Windows or have Migrated to Windows from any other Operating System, please do read the post Configure Mouse Properties on Windows which outlines the procedure to launch Mouse Properties Screen and configure various parameters of Mouse. This post talks in details about various options available and give you quick access to all the configurable settings available from Mouse Properties Screen. The Screenshot above displays the Mouse Properties Screen and displays the first Tab offering Configuration of Buttons on the Mouse. Note that you can switch primary and secondary buttons depending on whether you are left handed or right handed person. The Next available configuration is to configure the Double-click speed which can be tested in the Mouse Properties Screen itself. Finally the first tab allows you to enable or disable ClickLock which allows you to highlight or drag without holding the mouse button.

Configure Mouse Pointers from Mouse Properties
Configure Mouse Pointers from Mouse Properties

Let’s now talk about Mouse Pointers which are configurable from the second tab whose screen is as displayed above. Various Mouse Pointers are displayed during the usage of Mouse and all these Mouse Cursors are grouped into schemes. You can view current Mouse Pointer Scheme or even switch to a different Scheme. Here you can even Customize any Mouse Pointer in a Scheme by selecting a Mouse Cursor File which is basically a file with either .cur file extension or with .ani file extension.

Mouse Pointer Options in Mouse Properties
Mouse Pointer Options in Mouse Properties

Moving onto 3rd tab of Mouse Properties which allows you to view and customize Pointer Options as displayed in the Screenshot above. As displayed above, you can select a Mouse Pointer Speed and optionally enable pointer precision. Note you can also enable the Snap To feature which automatically moves the pointer to the default button in a dialogue box. Enabling pointer trails displays Mouse Animation behind Mouse Cursor and can be handy to easily locate Mouse Pointer when you have a High Definition or Ultra High Definition Display or any other circumstance where locating Mouse Pointer is becoming difficult. You can even enable the option to Hide Mouse Pointer when typing. Finally the last Configurable Setting allow you to easily locate Mouse Pointer by pressing the CTRL Key.

Scroll Wheel Configuration from Mouse Properties
Scroll Wheel Configuration from Mouse Properties

When you want to configure behavior of Scroll Wheel, you can navigate to the 4th Tab of Mouse Properties which allows you to configure Vertical and Horizontal Scrolling. Most of the Mice available now a days do have Scroll Wheel for Vertical Scrolling, however Horizontal Scrolling is sort of less popular than Vertical Scrolling. This Wheel Tab of Mouse Properties allows you to configure what happens when you Roll the wheel one notch to scroll. The available options are finite number of lines at a time or One Screen at a time. Similarly for Horizontal Scrolling, you can configure the number of characters to be scrolled when wheel is tiled.

Hardware Configuration from Mouse Properties
Hardware Configuration from Mouse Properties

The Last Tab of Mouse Properties is a Hardware Configuration Screen which allows you to view and configure all the Mice connected to your Windows Computer. The above Screenshot displays Hardware Configuration of a Windows 10 Computer on which there is 1 Mouse Connected to a Gaming Computer. The Standard Device Drivers of the Mouse supplied by Microsoft have been updated to support Gaming Mouse Software and is being used for Gaming Purpose. Yes you can connect Multiple Physical Mouse to your Windows Computer, however Windows Supports only 1 Mouse Cursor and even with multiple Mice connected to your Windows Computer, all the Mice connected will control 1 single Mouse Cursor. Yes there are other 3rd party Software Applications available which allow you to configure Mouse Cursor(s) in other ways which are not supported by Microsoft Windows Operating System.

Device Manager Displaying Mice and other pointing devices
Device Manager Displaying Mice and other pointing devices

You can also locate Mice connected to your Windows Computer by looking at Device Manager. Note the above Screenshot of Windows Device Manager displays 1 Mouse displayed under the section Mice and other pointing devices. Hopefully this article was informative and useful when looking to configure appropriate Mouse Setting. Whether you are using Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 11, Windows 2000 or any other Windows Operating System, the Mouse Settings Screen has remained almost the same across various version of Microsoft Windows. Before changing any Settings of your Mouse, do make sure that you do understand the effect of change and can revert back any change in Mouse Settings if required.