Cursor disappearing when I hover over different things on my screen

Ben G 0 Reputation points
2026-10-09T22:13:50.2666667+00:00

Whenever I hover over things with my cursor, it randomly disappears. I can still click things, and things still have the little animation when the invisible cursor hovers over them. Sometimes I can only see the cursor when I am not hovering over text or a click button, sometimes it is the opposite of that, and sometimes I can't see it at all no matter what. I found that when I turn on my PC it shows but flickers in and out very fast as everything is loading, then it starts to disappear. I have tried a bunch of things like updating the mouse driver, changing mice, changing things in the regular settings, and looking at the device manager and mouse properties. I do not know what to do to make it work! This only started happening after I installed the basic secure boot keys and turned on secure boot on my computer. Please help me!

Thanks,

Ben

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Display and graphics
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  1. Emma1-N 13,595 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-10-10T03:42:14.7466667+00:00

    Welcome Ben G,

    Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand that your mouse pointer randomly becomes invisible while remaining functional, and that this started after you enabled Secure Boot.

    Could you confirm whether the cursor also disappears in Safe Mode? Also, are you running a standard Windows 11 release or a Windows Insider Preview build?

    Please make sure you already tried the Q&A Assist steps. In addition, please try the following.

    Step 1: Test the cursor in Safe Mode.

    • Open Settings and select System, Recovery.
    • Under Advanced startup, select Restart now.
    • After Windows enters the recovery environment, select Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart.
    • Select Enable Safe Mode.
    • Check whether the pointer still disappears when hovering over text, buttons, and other items.

    Step 2: If the cursor works normally in Safe Mode, perform a clean boot.

    • Search for msconfig and open System Configuration.
    • On the Services tab, select Hide all Microsoft services, then select Disable all.
    • On the Startup tab, open Task Manager and disable the enabled startup items.
    • Restart the computer and test the cursor again.

    Step 3: Temporarily change the pointer style for testing.

    • Open Settings and select Accessibility, Mouse pointer and touch.
    • Change the pointer to a different color and increase its size.
    • Check whether it remains visible when hovering over different interface elements.

    Looking forward to your update.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-10-09T22:14:07.9233333+00:00

    This pattern matches two supported causes in Windows:

    1. Pointer auto-hide while typing Windows can hide the pointer while typing. To check that setting:
      • Open Settings and search for Mouse settings.
      • Select Additional Mouse Settings.
      • In Mouse Properties, open Pointer Options.
      • Clear Hide pointer while typing.
      • Restart the affected app, and if needed restart Windows.
    2. Display driver or incompatible app behavior Since the cursor flickers during startup and then disappears, check whether this is part of a broader display issue:
      • Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
      • If Task Manager flickers along with the rest of the screen, a display driver is the likely cause.
      • If Task Manager does not flicker but the rest of the screen does, an incompatible app is the likely cause.

    Then try these Windows display steps:

    • Press Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset the graphics driver.
    • If the issue continues, restart the PC.
    • If Windows Update recently changed the display driver, try rolling it back:
      1. Open Device Manager.
      2. Expand Display adapters.
      3. Right-click the adapter > Properties.
      4. Open the Driver tab.
      5. Select Roll Back Driver > Yes.
      6. Restart the device.
    • If rollback is unavailable, update the display driver from Device Manager > Display adapters > right-click adapter > Update driver.
    • If needed, uninstall the display driver from the same Driver tab and restart so Windows reinstalls it. This can temporarily affect display behavior until the driver is restored.

    Because the issue started after enabling Secure Boot, the most relevant supported next step is still to verify whether the problem is actually a display-driver issue using the Task Manager flicker test and then use the driver reset/rollback/update path above.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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