Mouse sensitivity is a critical aspect of your computer’s usability and can greatly affect your overall productivity and gaming performance. In Windows, you have the flexibility to adjust your mouse sensitivity to suit your needs and preferences. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the steps to change your mouse sensitivity in Windows, helping you fine-tune your mouse’s response to your liking.
This article describes various ways to change mouse sensitivity on Windows. You will occasionally come across mouse “DPI”. So, let’s start by explaining the term DPI.
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What is DPI?
DPI stands for Dots per Inch. DPI is the standard unit used to measure mouse sensitivity.
You can understand mouse DPI as how fast the mouse pointer moves on the screen when the mouse is moved.
Changing the DPI instantly changes the pointer speed and this adjustment is often essential for some tasks like playing games and graphics editing.
The higher the mouse DPI, the higher the sensitivity that even a small movement of the mouse will move the pointer a huge distance.
There are two methods how to change mouse sensitivity on Windows.
How to Change Mouse Sensitivity Using Mouse Controls
Some mouses are designed with buttons to adjust the sensitivity/DPI. This is most common with gaming mouses and this is the easiest way how to change mouse sensitivity on Windows. You just need to press these buttons to adjust DPI. However, most common mouses don’t have these buttons and this is where method 2 comes in.
How to Change Mouse Sensitivity from Windows Settings
The following steps will show how to change mouse DPI for those mouses without DPI controllers like the one in the image below.
The first thing you want to do is to open the control panel. To do this, click the start button (the button with the Windows logo) Search for the control panel, and open it.
From the control panel, press Ctrl + F to search for “mouse” using the search bar in the top right corner, and from the search results, select change mouse settings. This will open the Mouse properties window.
Navigate to the Pointer Options tab. From here you will be able to make all the necessary adjustments to improve your mouse performance.
The first slider is used to adjust the pointer speed (in other words the mouse DPI).
Different tasks require different adjustments, therefore, move the slider to the appropriate position depending on the task you’re doing, I, however, recommend moving the slider to the middle(in the sixth position from the left).
Next, you have to uncheck Enhance pointer precision. This removes mouse acceleration. Leaving this checkbox checked will move the pointer different distances depending on the speed with which the mouse is moved. You wouldn’t like that.
Finally, the only checkbox you need to check is the Hide pointer while typing. Apply the changes and you’re good to go.
For gamers;
You might need to make additional adjustments to the in-game settings. Go to settings > mouse acceleration settings then sensitivity settings.
These settings, however, may differ for different games but it’s always something related to that for most of the games.
Note:
If mouse performance is not improved after adjusting all the above settings. You probably have to update your mouse drivers.
You can do this by downloading the mouse drivers from the manufacturer’s official website.