Windows’ “Enhance Pointer Precision” setting helps with some mice, but hurts with others. If you find that it keeps enabling or disabling itself automatically, here are some potential fixes.
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This option, which you can find under Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Mouse > Pointer Options, is an interesting one. When you enable it, Windows dynamically adjusts the sensitivity of your mouse depending on how fast you move the cursor. This may improve the feel of a Windows laptop’s touchpad, but only reduce your accuracy when using a traditional mouse at a desktop PC, which means it can be really annoying when it turns itself on or off. Here are two potential causes for this seemingly random behavior.
Stop Windows From Automatically Syncing This Setting
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Windows 10 and 8 automatically sync various settings between your PCs if you sign in with a Microsoft account. Microsoft has chosen to sync your mouse settings—including the “Enhance Pointer Precision” option—by default. It doesn’t make any sense to sync many of these mouse settings, as they need to be configured differently for different mouse hardware on different PCs.
If this setting keeps enabling or disabling itself, it’s possible Windows is syncing it between PCs. For example, we had a laptop where Windows kept disabling the “Enhance pointer precision” option. When we enabled the option, it would sync to a Windows 10 desktop where we were logged in with the same account, and the mouse drivers on the desktop would disable the setting. Then Windows would sync that change back to the laptop, disabling the option once again. It took us a while to realize what was happening.
To stop Windows 10 from syncing your mouse settings, head to Settings > Accounts > Sync Your Settings. Disable the “Other Windows settings” option here. Windows won’t attempt to sync the mouse settings on your PC in the future.
On Windows 8, head to PC Settings > OneDrive > Sync Settings and disable “Other Windows Settings”.
Disable Your Mouse Driver Utility
The utilities provided by mouse manufacturers often automatically modify this setting. For example, Logitech’s SetPoint tool automatically disables the “Enhance pointer precision” option every boot. Razer’s Synapse desktop software does the same thing. These manufacturer tools want to handle mouse pointer precision options on their own, promising to do a better job of it.
This is normally fine, but you may run into issues if you have a touchpad you want to use. For example, you might use both a Logitech mouse and a built-in touchpad on your laptop. Logitech’s SetPoint software would automatically disable “Enhance pointer precision” every boot, which is fine for using Logitech mice—but you might want this option enabled for the laptop’s built-in touchpad. Unfortunately, the “Enhance pointer precision” option is a system-wide setting that applies to all mouse hardware, so you can’t just disable it for a standard mouse but leave it enabled for the touchpad.
If this is a problem, you may want to uninstall your mouse manufacturer’s utility. You don’t necessarily need it installed. For example, if you occasionally use a Logitech mouse with your laptop but don’t use any of the button-remapping features included with SetPoint, you can head to the Control Panel and uninstall SetPoint. Your Logitech mouse will continue working, and the setting won’t be reset every time you boot.
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If you don’t want to uninstall your mouse manufacturer’s utility, you can prevent it from running at boot. On Windows 10 or 8, you can open the Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar and selecting “Task Manager”, locate the utility on the Startup tab, right-click it and select “Disable”.
The utility won’t launch and change the option every boot. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use any of the tool’s additional features—like button-remapping, mouse profiles, battery life monitoring, and firmware updates—without launching it. When you do, the utility will change the “Enhance pointer precision” setting. That’s why you may just want to uninstall the utility instead, if you can go without it.
