Mouse acceleration in Windows 10, officially called Enhance Pointer Precision, adjusts how far your cursor moves based on how fast you move the mouse. Move it slowly and the cursor travels a short distance. Move it quickly and the cursor jumps much farther than the physical movement would suggest. This sounds helpful, but it breaks the direct relationship between physical mouse movement and cursor position that many people depend on for accurate work.
This guide walks through disabling mouse acceleration entirely, explains why you might want to, and covers what to adjust afterward to get the pointer speed feeling right without acceleration in the mix.
Quick Answer
Go to Settings > Devices > Mouse > Additional mouse options > Pointer Options and uncheck Enhance pointer precision. Click Apply and OK. Mouse acceleration is now off. You may want to adjust the pointer speed slider afterward since acceleration and speed interact differently once it is disabled.
Why Turn Off Mouse Acceleration
Gamers disable mouse acceleration because it makes aiming inconsistent. With acceleration on, the same physical arm movement produces a different cursor distance depending on how fast you move, which means muscle memory built in one movement speed does not transfer to another. Disabling it makes every centimeter of mouse movement produce the same cursor movement regardless of speed, which allows for reliable, repeatable aim.
Designers and video editors have the same concern for different reasons. Drawing a straight line, placing elements precisely, or scrubbing a timeline requires knowing exactly where your cursor will land for a given hand movement. Acceleration disrupts that predictability. With it off, your hand learns the workspace geometry once and that knowledge stays consistent across sessions.
Open Mouse Settings
- Click the Start menu and open Settings (the gear icon).
- Click Devices.
- Click Mouse in the left sidebar.
Open Additional Mouse Options
- On the Mouse settings page, click Additional mouse options on the right side (or scroll down to find it).
This opens the classic Mouse Properties dialog box where the acceleration setting lives.
Go to the Pointer Options Tab
- In the Mouse Properties dialog, click the Pointer Options tab.
Uncheck Enhance Pointer Precision
- Under Motion, uncheck the Enhance pointer precision checkbox.
- Click Apply, then OK.
Mouse acceleration is now disabled. The pointer speed slider above the checkbox still works. It adjusts the DPI multiplier Windows applies to your mouse’s raw input, but now it does so uniformly at all movement speeds rather than variably.
What to Adjust After Disabling Acceleration
With acceleration off, your cursor may feel slower than before, especially when moving across a large monitor. This is normal and expected. The acceleration was artificially boosting fast movements, so removing it reveals the baseline speed your pointer speed slider was set to.
If you have a gaming mouse, increase the DPI in the mouse software rather than moving the Windows pointer speed slider. Higher DPI at the hardware level gives you more resolution and faster movement without the software-level distortion that the Windows slider can introduce at extreme settings.
For gaming specifically, the pointer speed slider at the 6th notch (the middle position) applies a 1:1 ratio between your mouse’s raw sensor data and cursor movement, with no Windows-level scaling. This is the recommended setting for competitive gaming because it means the cursor travels exactly the distance your DPI setting specifies, giving you the cleanest possible input. Pair this with the right DPI for your mouse pad size and game sensitivity settings, and you have a fully predictable, consistent setup.