5 Ways to Fix Cursor Freeze in Windows 11

The mouse is a very crucial input device on the computer, and a non-responding input device can render you unable to interact with the computer as you intend to, thus, leaving you frustrated and irritated.

Cursor freeze is an issue that had been present in Windows 10 and has silently crept into Windows 11. Fortunately, there are some known causes and fixes that are bound to resolve this issue on your computer.

Moreover, the issue typically arises due to software-related issues. Hence, it is easily fixable by yourself using the methods mentioned below. We will first rule out the most elementary issues and then gradually move on to the more advanced ones.

1. Make Sure the Touchpad Lock is not Enabled

Many modern computers have a physical key that disables the touchpad to facilitate accidental touches or ease of use when a secondary mouse is connected. However, an accidental press of the switch can turn off the touchpad, creating the illusion of the cursor freezing or the touchpad not responding.

Typically the ‘Touchpad Disable’ key is located in the Fn row of the keyboard. It will have a diagram displaying the same. Along with that, it may also have an illumination to indicate the current status of the switch either right on it or in a dedicated space of the keyboard deck.

2. Adjust Mouse Sensitivity and Disable Enhanced Pointer Precision

If you are sensing stuttering more than freezing, it could also be a mouse sensitivity issue. All you need to do is adjust the sensitivity to get the mouse working properly again.

First, head to the Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile.

After that, make sure you have selected the ‘Bluetooth & devices’ tab from the left sidebar.

Next, click on the ‘Mouse’ tab from the right section of the screen.

Now, stretch the slider following the ‘Mouse pointer speed’ to your farthest right.

Once done, it should fix the problem on your computer.

To disable enhanced pointer precision, on the ‘Mouse’ settings page, locate and click on the ‘Additional mouse settings’ tile. This will open a new window on the screen.

Now, click on the checkbox preceding the ‘Enhance pointer precision’ option to uncheck.

After that, click on the ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ buttons respectively to save the changes.

3. Make Sure the Touchpad is Enabled from the Settings App

In most modern laptop computers, Windows allows users to completely turn off the touchpad if they wish to do so. Hence, if you own a laptop computer, it is definitely worth your time to check that you have not accidentally turned the touchpad off.

Note: This method is only applicable to laptop computers. If you own a desktop computer, please hop onto the next section.

To check the Touchpad settings, head to the Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile.

On the Settings window, click on ‘Bluetooth & devices’ from the left sidebar to continue.

Then, click on the ‘Devices’ tab from the right section.

Next, click on the ‘Touchpad’ tile to continue.

Finally, click on the toggle switch following the ‘Touchpad’ option and bring it to the ‘On’ position.

4. Update or Roll Back Mouse Driver

If you have just recently updated your mouse driver, rolling it back to the previous version can help. On the other side, if it has been a while since you updated the driver, updating it might fix the issue for you.

To update the mouse driver, head to the Start Menu and type Device Manager. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile.

Next, double-click on the ‘Mice and other pointing devices’ option to expand the section. Then, double-click on the ‘mouse’ component from the list. This will open a new window.

After that, head to the ‘Driver’ tab and click on the ‘Update Driver’ button.

Now, if you wish to let Windows search for drivers, choose the first option from the list. Otherwise, to update the driver using an existing installer package on your computer, click on the ‘Browse my computer for drivers’ option to open a File Explorer window which you can use to select the package.

If you are here to roll back the mouse driver, from the properties window of the component, click on the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button.

After updating or rolling back, restart your PC from the Start Menu. Once restarted, check if the issue has been resolved.

5. Roll Back to a System Restore Point

If everything else failed and you have a Restore Point created of your system when the mouse was working perfectly fine, you can simply roll back to it and fix the problem on your computer.

First, head to the Start Menu and type Control to perform a search. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Control Panel’ tile.

Next, press Tab to bring focus to the grid and navigate to the ‘Recovery’ tile and press Enter to proceed.

Then, click on the ‘Open System Restore’ button to continue. A new window will appear on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, hit the ‘Next’ button.

All created system restore points will be listed on the screen. Click to select the desired one and then click on the ‘Next’ button to initiate the rolling back process.

Next, a list of drives that will be impacted by the rollback will be displayed along with the timestamp of the restore point created. You can also check the programs that will be affected; click on the ‘Scan for the affected programs’ button. A new window will appear on the screen.

On the new window, you can view the programs that will be deleted and the ones that will be restored (since no programs will be affected on the test PC, the list in the screenshot is empty). Press Tab till the focus shifts to the ‘Close’ button and press Enter key.