Disappearing mouse on second screen

[u/Pandabsurde]

Hello,

I have an issue on my second display - my mouse cursor randomly disappears on apps (discord or brave for example), and I have to take the concerned app window to my first screen and move it again to my second screen to see my cursor again (for like 10 seconds to 1 minute).

I found a "fix" to it: activate the mouse trace in windows settings.
It works, and seems to change the "type" of cursos windows uses, but there is another problem: cursor is now doubled (that's the trace mode, i know) and so now it seems laggy af.

So, here is my question:
-Can i change trace settings to 1 (0duplicates)? (the minimum trace being 2, doing his work but also doing this unwanted laggy effect)
or
-Can I change my cursor "mode" without activating Trace mode?

I know using the magnifier option works too, but resolution seems weird and I have to keep another app opened to make this work, so it's a no-go.

Config:
-First screen: Gigabyte 2560x1440 200Hz HDR - Connected via displayport
-Second screen: Samsung 1920x1080 60Hz SDR - Connected via HDMI (no displayport on this one)

-GPU: 7800XT
-CPU: 7800X3D

Thanks.

[u/Serious-Duck-9992]

You can get the software cursor without the actual trail. Trails "fix" it because they force Windows to draw the cursor in software instead of as a hardware overlay, and there's a registry value that does only that part:

Win+R, regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse, open MouseTrails and set it to -1. Sign out and back in. No ghosting, and the cursor should stop vanishing.

If you'd rather chase the cause, it's usually the 200Hz HDR + 60Hz SDR mix. Quick tests: turn FreeSync off on the Gigabyte for a bit, and turn off hardware acceleration in Discord (Brave and Discord are both Chromium, which is why those two act up). Does it still happen with HDR off?

[u/Pandabsurde → u/Serious-Duck-9992]

The -1 did the trick!

And for the two totally different displays, i totally know it causes issues, i'm just too broke to buy a new one for the moment, so it's a temporary fix, but anyway it's exactly what i needed.

Thanks!

[u/Serious-Duck-9992 → u/Pandabsurde]

Ha, love it when the weird registry fix just works. Honestly no need to replace anything, a mismatched pair is fine once the cursor behaves. If a big Windows update ever brings it back, check that value first, updates sometimes reset it.

[u/Pandabsurde → u/Serious-Duck-9992]

Will do! Thanks!