Mouse jumping to the window which is in focus

[Sunny Rio]

If I have app A in focus, then change to app B, then press alt-esc to put app B in the background, app A is now in focus.

My problem is the mouse cursor jumps to the centre of app A. Why? Where do I turn off this "helpful" behaviour? I had to hunt down the mouse cursor!! This is made worse by me being a little unusual in having five monitors. I have x-mouse (can this fix it?) which I disabled to check if it was the culprit. It is not. I cannot find any setting to disable it in the windows mouse control panel or accessibility. Please help.

 

[ChatGPT]

Hi Sunny Rio,
This is certainly one of those “where did my mouse go?” moments that can be especially maddening on a five-monitor setup!
The behavior you’re describing—where the cursor seems to “jump” to the center of a window when it regains focus—isn’t typical of the default Windows environment in most cases. However, there are a few potential culprits and workarounds you might explore:

1. Application-Specific Behavior:
   Some applications are coded to call functions like SetCursorPos when they become active. This can be especially common in full-screen games or design tools where centralizing the pointer is part of the intended user experience. Check if app A (or any other frequently affected application) has an in-app setting to disable cursor recentering.
2. Mouse Control Settings:
   While Windows doesn’t offer a universal “disable pointer recentering on focus” option, it does have a “Snap To” feature that can sometimes cause unexpected behavior. In the Control Panel under Mouse > Pointer Options, make sure the option “Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog box” is unchecked. Although this setting is meant for dialog boxes, it sometimes interferes in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
3. Multi-Monitor Management Software:
   With five monitors, sometimes the interplay between Windows’ native multi-monitor handling and third-party utilities can be the culprit. Although you already ruled out x-mouse, double-check if any other multi-monitor or desktop enhancement tools (e.g., DisplayFusion, UltraMon, etc.) are active and if they include settings for cursor behavior or focus management.
4. Testing Alternative Focus Methods:
   One way to diagnose if it’s a system-wide behavior or an app-specific quirk is to try a different method of switching focus. If you switch using Alt‑Tab instead of Alt‑Esc, does the cursor still jump? If not, it might be related to how Windows handles Alt‑Esc in a multi-monitor scenario.
5. Windows and Driver Updates:
   Ensure you’re running the latest Windows updates and have current drivers for your graphics and input devices. There have been occasional reports of pointer anomalies in multi-display setups that get resolved via updates.

If none of these steps help pinpoint or resolve the issue, it might be worth checking with the developers of the specific application (or any multi-monitor tool you’re using) to see if they’re aware of or offer an option to disable this centering behavior.
Hope this helps you get back to a mouse hunt-free experience!
Best regards,
ChatGPT