Mouse cursor disappears when playing games in full-screen mode

Some users have reported that their mouse cursor disappears when they play games in full-screen mode. The issue occurs only in video games and not in other programs. Also, the mouse cursor remains visible in windowed mode. Because users cannot see their mouse cursor in the full-screen mode, they must play the game in windowed mode if your mouse cursor disappears when playing games in full-screen mode, the solutions explained in this article may help you.

Mouse cursor disappears when playing games in full-screen mode

If your mouse cursor becomes invisible when you play games in full-screen mode on your Windows PC, the following solutions may help you.

1. Disable pointer trails
2. Scale your display to 100% (Recommended)
3. Run the game in Compatibility Mode
4. Play the game in 640 x 480 resolution
5. Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state
6. Update or reinstall your drivers
7. Roll back Windows Update

Let’s see all these solutions in detail.

1] Disable pointer trails

Pointer trail is a feature that makes it easier to track the movement of the mouse cursor. A lot of affected users have confirmed that pointer trails made their mouse cursor disappear in the full-screen mode. If you have enabled this feature, turn it off in your mouse settings and see if the problem is fixed.

The steps to disable pointer trails on Windows PC are as follows:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Type mouse in the Control Panel search bar and select Mouse from the search results. This will open the Mouse Properties window.
3. Select the Pointer Options tab.
4. Deselect the Disable pointer trails checkbox.
5. Click Apply and then click OK.

2] Scale your display to 100% (Recommended)

If you have set the display scaling other than what Microsoft recommends to its users you may sometimes experience issues. The issue of the disappearing of the mouse cursor when playing games in full-screen mode may be related to the display scaling. Check if you have set custom display scaling. If yes, change it to the recommended display scaling. In most cases, it is 100%. The steps for the same are provided below:

1. Open Windows 11/10 Settings.
2. Go to “System > Display.”
3. Click on the drop-down next to Display and select 100% (Recommended).

3] Run the game in Compatibility Mode

If the above solutions did not solve your problem, run the game in Compatibility Mode and see if this helps. The following instructions will guide you on this:

1. Go to the desktop and right-click on your game icon.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Compatibility tab.
4. Enable the checkbox that says “Run this program in compatibility mode for.”
5. Select Windows 8 in the drop-down menu.
6. Click Apply and then click OK.

4] Play the game in 640 x 480 resolution

If running the game in compatibility mode did not fix the problem, try to run the game in 640 x 480 resolution and see if your cursor disappears while playing the game. To do so, open the properties of your game by following the steps described in the previous fix and go to the Compatibility tab. Now, enable the “Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution” checkbox.

Read: Mouse Pointer disappears & gets replaced with Arrow key in Windows

5] Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state

The startup programs start on the system startup. They keep running in the background and consume resources of our system. Sometimes, these startup programs conflict with other Windows services and programs due to which the user experiences several issues. Troubleshoot your system in a Clean Boot state to check if a startup program is causing the problem or not.

Clean Boot is a state where Windows gets launched with only essential services enabled. All the startup apps remain disabled in the Clean Boot state. After starting your computer in the Clean Boot state, launch your game in full-screen mode and see if the mouse cursor disappears this time. If your cursor does not disappear in the Clean Boot state, you have to identify the startup app causing the problem.

To identify the culprit startup program, start your computer in normal mode and disable the startup apps one by one. Run your game in full-screen mode every time you disable a startup program. This process will take time but you will be able to identify the culprit. Once you find the problematic app, consider uninstalling it or disabling it while playing the game.

Some users have found f.lux the culprit of this problem. If you have installed f.lux on your system, check if it is causing the issue.

6] Update or reinstall your drivers

You may also experience such types of issues if your display or mouse drivers get corrupted. Moreover, the outdated drivers also create problems on a Windows device. Therefore, it is always suggested to keep your drivers and system up to date. Update your display and mouse drivers and see if it helps. To do so, go to the Optional Updates page in Windows Update and see if an update for your display and mouse drivers is available. If yes, install it.

You can also try reinstalling your display and mouse drivers. For this, first, visit the manufacturer’s website and download the latest version of your display and mouse drivers. After that, uninstall these drivers from the Device Manager and install them manually by running the installer file.

7] Roll back Windows Update

Keeping your system up to date is recommended by Microsoft. But sometimes, users start experiencing issues after installing Windows Updates. In such a case, uninstalling the latest Windows Update and going back to the previous version of the Windows operating system fixes the problem.

If the problem started occurring after updating your system, uninstall the recently installed Windows Update. This should help.

Why does the mouse pointer disappear?

Usually, this problem occurs due to a corrupted or outdated mouse driver. If your mouse cursor disappears, you should update its driver. The driver updates are available on the Windows Optional Update page. If there is no update available for your mouse driver, open the Device Manager and uninstall your mouse driver. After that, restart your computer to reinstall the missing driver. This should fix the problem.

How do I find my hidden cursor?

To find your hidden cursor, open your mouse properties and go to the Pointer Options tab. Now, enable the checkbox that says “Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key.” Click Apply and then click OK. After that, whenever you press the Ctrl key, Windows will show its location on your screen.

Hope this helps.