You might have noticed there is an option called Enhanced Pointer Precision. It has existed since Windows XP. What is the Windows Mouse Pointer Precision and what does it do? Many gamers turn off Pointer Precision while playing games on Windows computers. Why is it so? This article deals with Windows 10 enhance pointer precision and why gamers prefer to turn it OFF while playing games on PC.
What is Enhanced Pointer Precision?
The “Enhanced Pointer Precision” can increase the physical speed of your mouse setting in Windows. This default feature is enabled in Windows and is a form of mouse acceleration.
When the physical speed of your mouse is increased, the pointer speed is also increased so that you don’t have to move the mouse much on the mouse pad while gaming.
To make it easier for users, Windows 10 enhanced pointer precision accelerates or increases the speed of the pointer when the mouse is moved faster in a direction. As you move your mouse from one point to another the mouse gains acceleration. Similarly, if you use your mouse slower than usual, the pointer speed is also reduced so that you can point properly.
The velocity of the mouse is calculated and the DPI is increased on the fly whenever high velocity is detected. This gives you additional control over the pointer, especially when you move the pointer small distances on your screen. Enhanced Pointer Precision gaming also provides for quicker deceleration of the pointer when you slow down or stop the mouse.
You may encounter erratic behavior if the speed of the pointer becomes higher than the default speed. That is why it is recommended to keep the default mouse speed and then have the program enabled. Such erratic mouse behavior can be caused because of video card hardware acceleration and lowering the hardware acceleration may help in the situation.
It is possible that in some cases the mouse does not track as smoothly as it did before you enabled this feature. For example, you may notice the problem especially when you use the mouse to slowly draw a diagonal line. In such cases, it’s advised to disable this feature.
Why Enhance Pointer Precision Is Enabled By Default?
It is enabled in Windows because it is useful in many situations.
For instance, let’s say you’re using a computer in an office and you have a cheap $5 mouse that you are working with. The mouse does not have an excellent sensor and is limited to a fairly low DPI setting. You might need to move your mouse to a longer distance to move it from one side of the screen to another without this feature. With the help of Enhanced Pointer Precision in windows, you can move the mouse more quickly from one side of the screen to another without moving it a greater distance and much effort. Moreover, You can also move the mouse at a slower rate than normal to gain better accuracy.
This feature can also be useful for laptop touchpads that allows you to move your finger more quickly all through the touchpad. This will move the cursor a greater distance without dragging your finger to the other side of the laptop touchpad.
Is Enhanced Pointer Precision Good for Gaming purposes?
For ‘Enhanced pointer precision gaming’, we recommend to the gamers to disable the Enhance pointer precision feature on your laptop or PC.
The main reason behind this is that the feature does not have a linear increase across the board, and therefore it becomes hard for it to be completely accurate. This drawback is more bothersome for gamers as even the slightest movement in the mouse can ultimately increase the cursor speed which is quite important for winning in the game.
Whether you should turn off Enhance Pointer Precision while playing Games
Now coming to the most asked question “whether you should turn off this feature”? The acceleration depends on the mouse and the screen resolution. We all are aware that Games have their own resolutions that are different from the regular screen. Due to these factors, it becomes difficult for gamers to ascertain at how much speed they should move their mouse on the mouse pad to gain the advantage available in the game they intend to play.
Since Gamers are required to make a quick decision while they play the game, therefore many of them prefer to disable the Enhanced Pointer Precision feature as it makes slow mouse movements very smooth and that makes the pointer move slower.
Gamers can have more control over their mouse and other pointing devices with this feature disabled. It might be difficult for you to play with the mouse without this feature enabled but soon you will be adjusted to the new speed of the mouse pointer. This is the reason why most gamers prefer to turn off pointer precision while playing games because this lets them have entire control over the mouse pointer and play the game better without allowing Windows software to add its own calculations to the mouse pointers.
How to Disable or Enable Enhance Pointer Precision?
If you want to disable the Pointer precision, here is how you can do it.
Open Control Panel, then select Hardware and Sound, and then choose Mouse. If you are using Windows 10, you can also head to Settings > Devices > Mouse > Additional mouse options. Now Click on the “Pointer Options” tab and toggle the “Enhance pointer precision” on or off, and click “OK” to save your changes.
Some mouse manufacturers like Logitech Setpoint and Razer Synapse create mouse configuration tools. These often disable Enhance pointer precision in windows automatically so they can enforce the manufacturer’s preferred settings.
This setting is system-wide unfortunately. For instance, when you use your laptop with a touchpad, and you might want to use this feature for the touchpad but not for the wired mouse that you plug in. There’s no chance that you can change the setting separately for each pointing device. All you can do is toggle it on or off entirely.
We hope we have delivered all the information that you required. Enhanced Pointer Precision is indeed a productive yet risky tool while you play games!
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