How to Highlight Cursor on Key Press on Windows 11 & 10

Is your cursor disappearing and hard to find on your screen? It’s one of the major inconveniences faced by many Windows users. Especially those with multi-monitor or wide monitor setup, with poor eyesight, or when using bright backgrounds. Thankfully, Windows has a simple solution for you. You can make the cursor reveal itself with a ripple effect as soon as you press the Ctrl key on your keyboard. So, without further ado, let’s get started and learn how to highlight the mouse cursor on key press.

Note: The below are tested to work on Windows 10 and 11.

Steps to Highlight Mouse Cursor on Key Press

To highlight the cursor as soon as you press the Ctrl key, follow the below steps.

Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start icon.
2. Select the Settings option.
3. Navigate to the Bluetooth & Devices tab.
4. Click on the Mouse option.
5. Scroll down and click on Additional Mouse Settings.
6. Navigate to the Pointer Options tab.
7. Select the Show location of pointer when I press CTRL key checkbox.
8. Click OK.

Windows 10:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Click on the Settings icon on the left side to open the Settings app.
   
3. In the Settings app, go to the Devices > Mouse page.
4. Click on the Additional mouse options link under Related Settings.
5. Go to the Pointer Options tab in the Mouse Properties window.
6. Select the Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key checkbox.
   
7. Click OK to save changes.

That is all. From now on, press the Ctrl key on your keyboard to highlight the cursor with a ripple effect. This makes it easy to locate the mouse pointer. You can see what it looks like in the GIF image below.

Disable Mouse Cursor Ripple Effect

If you don’t want to highlight the cursor as soon as you press the Ctrl key, follow the below steps.

1. Open the Settings app by pressing Windows key + I.
2. Go to the Bluetooth & Devices > Mouse page.
3. Click on the Additional mouse settings.
4. Go to the Pointer Options tab.
5. Uncheck the Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key checkbox.
6. Save changes by clicking on the OK button.

And there you have it. It’s that simple to highlight the mouse cursor with a ripple effect when it disappeared. If you like this article, check out how to highlight the mouse cursor with a yellow background for presentations or screen recording.