What Is Mouse Acceleration?

Have you ever played around with the mouse settings on your PC and got to an option that says mouse acceleration? It doesn’t matter whether you use a mouse or trackpad; the mouse acceleration feature is built-in and available on both Windows and Mac PCs. So, what is the mouse acceleration feature? 

As a gamer or professional graphics designer, you may have wondered whether enabling the mouse acceleration feature is worthwhile. This guide will elaborate on whether you should enable mouse acceleration and how to disable or enable it.  

Should You Enable Mouse Acceleration on Your PC? 

The goal of mouse acceleration is to enhance your cursor precision. But for many, enabling mouse acceleration does the opposite for them. So, when is the right time to enable or disable this feature? 

Tip #1: Large Screen  

When you have a large screen or operate one PC on multiple screens, enabling mouse acceleration will come in handy. Although this also depends on what you do on your PC. If you often scroll through feeds and do not have much to do with precise selection, then you can consider using this feature. 

With mouse acceleration enabled on your PC, it will eliminate the strain of having to scroll so much on a large screen to get from one point to another. The movement of your mouse will cover more distance, thus making your work a lot easier. 

Tip #2: Gamer  

A scenario where enabling mouse acceleration isn’t exactly helpful is when you are a gamer. As a gamer, precision is more useful than speed. When you enable mouse acceleration, though you can move around faster, getting it to that precise point would be tough, hurting your gaming performance and experience. 

Similarly, as a graphics designer, mouse acceleration wouldn’t be valuable. Although applying brushes sometimes requires you to paint over a large area, it is critical to get it done precisely. And even if you may be able to learn how to use your mouse with mouse acceleration enabled, it will take you hundreds of hours of practice. 

How To Disable or Enable Mouse Acceleration on a PC

So, whether you want the mouse acceleration feature or not, you can make the changes of your choice on your PC. Thankfully, Windows and Mac PCs both have this feature so that you can enable or disable it at will. 

We will look at the steps below to disable or enable the mouse acceleration on both PCs.

Method #1: On Windows 

If you are using a Windows PC, enabling or disabling the mouse acceleration feature is pretty straightforward. You can quickly go into your Windows Settings to enable or disable this feature. 

Here’s how to disable or enable the mouse acceleration on your PC.

1. Click on the Windows icon at the bottom left corner. 
2. In the search bar, type “mouse settings” and open the Mouse Settings from the displayed options.  
3. In the Mouse Settings menu, tap “Additional mouse options” on the right-hand side of your screen. 
4. Select the “Pointer options” tab from the window that pops up. 
5. Under the “Motion” category, you will see an option that says “Enhance pointer precision”; uncheck it to disable mouse acceleration, and check it to enable mouse acceleration. 

Method #2: On Mac 

It is also possible to enable and disable mouse acceleration on a Mac PC. However, unlike on a Windows PC, there are two ways to disable or enable mouse acceleration on a Mac. To enable or disable mouse acceleration on a Mac, you can do it in the terminal or your Mac settings.

Here’s how to disable or enable mouse acceleration in the terminal on Mac.

1. Open the utility folder on your Mac PC and tap on the Terminal application to launch it. 
2.  In the Terminal windows, enter the command default read .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling and press Enter to enable mouse acceleration. 
3. To disable mouse acceleration on Mac, enter the command defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 and press Enter.
4. Once the code runs successfully, you need to reboot your PC for changes to take effect. 

Here’s how to disable or enable mouse acceleration in Settings on Mac.

1. Open System Preferences on your Mac PC.
2. Find and select the “Mouse” option. 
3. Tap on “Manage tracing speed of your cursor”. 
4. Adjust the slider to a position that feels alright with you, and then click on “OK” to save changes. 

Conclusion 

If you feel the mouse movement on your PC is too slow, enabling mouse acceleration will help fix the issue. Similarly, you should disable mouse acceleration if the mouse movement is too fast. If you consider enabling mouse acceleration to boost your gaming performance, there are other ways to go about it, like increasing mouse sensitivity, polling rate, DPI, etc. 

Frequently Asked Questions