How to Activate a window by hovering over it with your mouse in Windows 11

When you have many windows open on your Windows desktop, you have to click on a particular window to activate it. But if you wish, you can activate windows and steal focus by simply moving your mouse to the window and hovering over it.

Activate a window by hovering over it with your mouse

The Windows Settings app of Windows 11 has an additional feature, the Activate on hover feature. You can adjust the time (in ms) needed to activate a window by hovering the mouse. Here are the steps to activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse using the Settings app of Windows 11:

1. Use the Win+I hotkey to open the Settings app
2. Select the Accessibility category
3. Access the Mouse page under the Interaction section
4. Turn on the Activate on hover option. Now, expand this setting
5. Use the slider to adjust the amount of time (between 1 to 9) the mouse needs to be over a window to activate it
6. Tickmark the Move window to top when activating for mouse hover. If you don’t select this option, the Activate on hover feature will still work, but the selected window will remain in the background only.

Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse using Control Panel

To activate a window by hovering over it with your mouse on Windows 11/10:

1. Open Control Panel > Ease of Access Center.
2. Click on Make the mouse easier to use.
3. Locate Make it easier to manage windows section,
4. Check the box – Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse.
5. Click Apply/OK and Exit.

Now, if you see, an open window will get activated when you simply move your mouse pointer over it.

Stop mouse from selecting when hovering

If you wish to stop the mouse from selecting when hovering, you have to uncheck this Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse option.

That’s it.

How to scroll inactive windows when I hover over them in Windows 11?

First, open the Settings app (Win+I). After that, navigate to Bluetooth & devices > Mouse. Scroll down to access the Scrolling section. Turn on the Scroll inactive windows when hovering over them option. You can also set the scrolling direction to Down motion scrolls up or Down motion scrolls down.

How do I move a window with my mouse in Windows 11?

Press the Alt+Space hotkey on an active window and use the arrow key to select the Move option in the menu that appears. After that, press and hold the Shift key, and use any of the arrow keys (Up, Left, Down, and Right) to move that window a bit. Now that particular window will stick to the mouse pointer or cursor. Wherever you move the mouse cursor, that window will be moved there and follow the cursor directions without any mouse clicks. However, this trick works only when a window is in restored mode, and not full-screen mode.

Read next: Mouse cursor moving but not clicking in Windows PC.

NOTES:

1. I have verified that this works in Windows 11/10 too.
2. In Windows 8 however, this could have a side-effect. You may find that when you go on to open the Charms Bar, the Charms Bar may close immediately after it is displayed. If you face this issue regularly, you may want to reverse and deactivate the ‘Activate a window by hovering over it with your mouse’ setting again.

While at the ‘Make the mouse easier to use’ section, you can also use it to change settings, to:

• Use the Windows computer without a keyboard or mouse
• Disable Aero Snap in Windows.

Need more Mouse tips? Read this post on Mouse Tricks For Windows.