How to get Shake to find cursor on Windows 10
macOs has a feature where if you jiggle your mouse, the cursor will enlarge on your screen. It makes it easy to find the cursor if you often lose it on your screen. If you’re using multiple displays, it’s all the more useful. Windows 10 does have something like this but you have to turn to the keyboard to find your mouse and so, it’s not as easy to use. Here’s how you can get Shake to find cursor on Windows 10.
Shake to find cursor
In order to get macOS’ Shake to find cursor feature on Windows 10, you need to install tan app called BigMouse. This app is free, and the source code is available for anyone who wants to modify it. Out of the box, it does what it claims to do but there’s some room for improvement.
Download and run the app. It doesn’t need to be installed. It will run in the system tray which is where you can quit the app from. Once it’s running, shake your cursor by jiggling your mouse and it will enlarge on your screen.
The app does what it’s supposed to but it’s a bit too sensitive. If you move your mouse too quickly, i.e., you don’t even jiggle it, the cursor enlarges. There are no settings that allow you to customize the sensitivity of the ‘jiggle’. It is what it is.
If you’re wondering what the built-in option is on Windows 10, it’s under mouse options. When enabled, tapping the Ctrl key will highlight your cursor wherever it is.
To enable it, open Control Panel. Go to Hardware and Sound. Under Devices and printers, click Mouse. In the Mouse Properties window that opens, go to the Pointer Options tab, and enable the ‘Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key’ option. Click Apply, and you’re done.
The problem with the BigMouse app, and with the built-in option to highlight the cursor is that there will be a lot of accidental highlights. With the app being too sensitive, moving the mouse too quickly will trigger it. With the Windows 10 built-in highlight option, it will be triggered each time you aren’t quick enough to use a keyboard shortcut involving the Ctrl key.
Between the two options, the default Windows 10 option seems to work better but it’s not as convenient. macOS definitely has one over Windows and it’s been like this for a long time which is odd considering multiple monitor setups are exceptionally common with Windows users.
I wish, for once, Windows imitations of Mac features don’t feel as crummy as they do. The Mac version is a smooth grow/shrink animation with a proper algorithm for detecting the shake. Sure, you can adjust sensitivity, but the Windows version goes looks almost like it has two sizes: normal and big… Terrible animation/feel.
I know I sound ungrateful for a free third-party tool but after years of similar scenarios, it just makes you belt out a loud *sigh*.