Mouse Without Borders – Cursor Transition Visual Highlight

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Add an optional visual feedback feature that temporarily highlights the mouse cursor when it transitions between devices using Mouse Without Borders.

When the cursor crosses to another PC, PowerToys would briefly trigger either:

Mouse Highlighter, or
Find My Mouse

The specific effect and duration would be user-configurable.

As an optional enhancement, non-active devices could have their screens temporarily dimmed or grayed out, further reinforcing which machine currently has cursor focus.

The goal is to provide immediate, low-friction visual confirmation of cursor location during cross-device transitions—especially in multi-monitor or high‑resolution setups.

Scenario when this would be used?

I regularly use Mouse Without Borders between a laptop and a desktop PC. The desktop system has two stacked 1440p ultrawide monitors.

When moving the cursor from the laptop to the desktop, the pointer often lands somewhere on a large, high-resolution display, making it difficult to locate immediately. This results in a brief but frequent pause while visually “searching” for the cursor.

A short, automatic visual highlight during cross-device transitions would eliminate this friction, improving efficiency and reduce daily frustration—especially for users with large, multiple, or mixed-orientation displays.

Supporting information

This feature builds on existing PowerToys functionality (Mouse Highlighter / Find My Mouse), minimizing new UX surface area.

Particularly beneficial for users with:

• High-DPI or ultrawide monitors
• Mixed orientation displays (stacked or portrait)
• Frequent laptop to desktop transitions

Similar visual focus cues exist in OS-level accessibility and presentation tools, indicating established user value.

The feature could be disabled by default to preserve current Mouse Without Borders behavior.

This enhancement improves accessibility without being limited to accessibility use cases.

Start by reviewing the Mouse Without Borders transition handling and how Mouse Highlighter and Find My Mouse are triggered. Clarify whether the first version should support one effect or both, how users configure the effect and duration, and whether screen dimming is in scope; done should provide an optional, configurable visual cue when the cursor moves between devices.