How to Fix it When the Mouse Cursor Disappears in Windows 11

The disappearance of the mouse cursor on a Windows PC is a very rare event. However, lately, many users have been facing the issue. Though the issue is not very major, it is much more of an inconvenience and frustrating to experience.

Thankfully, the issue seems to be software-based instead of a hardware one, and hence, you should be able to diagnose and resolve the issue by yourself. That being said, since an issue like this has no specific cause, you might have to try multiple fixes listed in this guide in order to eradicate the issue.

Thus, without any further chit-chat, let’s get started with the methods to resolve the issue on your PC.

Method 1: Toggle the Physical Touchpad Lock Key on your Keyboard

On all modern laptop computers, there’s a physical key to disable the touchpad of your device. Hence, if you are facing this issue on your laptop computer, it is definitely worth checking if the toggle has not been turned on accidentally.

Usually, the key resides on one of the function keys (F1-F12). One of the key identifiers is a ‘crossed touchpad icon’ on the key. Moreover, typically, the key also has a little light on it to indicate its ‘On/Off’ status.

Try pressing the key once to toggle it off. If you do not have the function lock active on your machine, press and hold the Fn key on your keyboard and then press the touchpad lock key to activate the touchpad.

Method 2: Make Sure Touchpad is Enabled from the Settings App

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

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 if you have not accidentally turned the touchpad of your machine off.

To check the Touchpad setting, head to the Settings app on your Windows machine by pressing the Windows+I button together on your keyboard.

Once the Settings window appears, press the Tab key once to bring the focus to the left sidebar present on the window. Then, press the Down Arrow key till you reach the ‘Bluetooth & devices’ option and hit Enter on your keyboard.

Next, keep pressing the Tab key until the cursor focus shifts to the ‘Devices’ tile.

Next, press the Down Arrow key on your keyboard till you reach the ‘Touchpad’ tile, and then press Enter on your keyboard.

On the next screen, press the spacebar to bring the toggle switch following the ‘Touchpad’ option to the ‘On’ position if not already on. In case the cursor focus is not on the toggle switch by default Press Tab to navigate to the next option displayed on the window, or press the Shift+Tab to move the cursor focus to the previous option.

Method 3: Update or Roll Back Mouse Driver

If you have just recently updated your mouse driver, rolling it back to the previous version can definitely help. On the flip 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, first, open the Start Menu by pressing the Windows key. Then, type Device Manager to perform a search for it. Then, from the search results and press Tab to shift cursor focus to the next item on the search result pane till the ‘Device Manager’ tile is highlighted. Next, press Enter on your keyboard to open it.

Next, from the Device Manager window, first, press Tab to bring focus to the list of component categories present on the window.

Then, press and hold the Down Arrow key till you reach the ‘Mice and other pointing devices’ option, now, press the Side Arrow key to expand the section.

After that, press the Down Arrow key to navigate to the ‘HID-compliant mouse’/’Touchpad Driver’ option from the list and press Enter to open its properties window separately on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, tap the Right Side Arrow key to move to the ‘Driver’ tab. Then again press the Tab key to bring the focus to the items listed on the ‘Drivers’ tab. Once the focus cursor is on the ‘Update Driver’ button, press the Enter key on your keyboard. This will open a separate window on your screen.

After that, from the separately opened window, press the Enter key to select the ‘Search automatically for drivers’ option. In case the focus cursor is not on the option, press Tab to move to the next option in the window or Shift+Tab to move to the previous option.

In case you have already downloaded a driver for your device, move to the ‘Browse my computer for drivers’ option by tapping the Down Arrowkey on your keyboard and then hitEnter to open the File Explorer and navigate to the .EXE file.

If you are here to roll back the mouse driver, from the properties window of the component, press Tab to bring focus to the tabs and click on the Right Side Arrow key to navigate to the ‘Driver’ tab. Then, again press Tab to shift the focus to the components present on the particular tab. Next, once the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button is highlighted, press the Enter key to roll back the driver to its previous version.

Once updated or rolled back, restart your PC from the Start Menu. After restarting, you should be able to see the cursor on your screen.

Method 4: Disable the Tablet Mode

Note: This method is only applicable to users who are using a hybrid device such as Microsoft Surface or similar that has a detachable keyboard.

If you own one of the hybrid Windows devices, that has a detachable keyboard, as soon as you detach the keyboard the machine switches to tablet mode where the cursor is disabled since the device will be relying on touch input. Hence, there could be a probability that the Tablet Mode is on even after connecting the keyboard.

Since there is no manual way to disable the Table mode on a Windows 11 device, you will have to restart the device in order to let itself calibrate according to the peripherals connected to the machine.

To restart, first, connect your device with a keyboard if not already connected. Then, press the Alt+F4 keys together on your keyboard to bring up the ‘Shut Down Wizard’ on your screen.

Next, press the Down Arrow key till the drop-down menu displays the ‘Restart’ option. Then press the Tab key to shift cursor focus to the ‘OK’ button. Next, hit Enter on your keyboard to restart the computer.

Once restarted, your Tablet mode should turn off and the mouse cursor should appear on your screen.

There you go people, we hope you are able to resolve the issue on your machine using the above-mentioned methods in the guide.