Mouse Without Borders - Moving mouse leaves trail/artifacts/leftovers of cursors

[asheroto]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.75.1

Installation method

Chocolatey

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Mouse Without Borders

Steps to reproduce

• Computer 1: Windows 11 Pro 22H2 (OS Build 22621.2428), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
• Computer 2: Windows Server 2022 Datacenter 21H2 (OS Build 20348.2031), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
• PowerToys 0.75.1 on both

Symptoms:

• Dragging mouse from Computer 1 to Computer 2 results in mouse trail/artifacts (USB mouse in Computer 1)
• Dragging mouse from Computer 2 to Computer 1 works as expected without mouse trail/artifacts (USB mouse in Computer 2)

✔️ Expected Behavior

No mouse trail

❌ Actual Behavior

Standard mouse settings:

Other Software

Settings...

[drizo72]

I also can confirm this behavior. But the most weird thing is that if I hover over Microsoft Outlook, the mouse point does not leave trails!! As a matter of fact, it switches to the slightly large mouse pointer I have selected for that PC.

If I hover the mouse over edge or the desktop or microsoft word, it does leave trails.

[asheroto]

Outlook could be using hardware acceleration which may affect it?

[EvenMien]

I've had this issue as well for about one or two months while running PowerToys v.0.75.1 and v0.76.0 as Administrator.

I do have a KVM monitor that connects keyboard and mouse and is the center screen. I was seeing cursor artifacts both when the laptop was using two screens and PC using one screen -or- when the laptop was using one screen and the PC was using two screens.

Laptop Monitor <> KVM Monitor <> PC Only Monitor

I tried changing my cursor colors on the laptop and PC. The laptop screen did not have cursor artifacts, and the cursor changed colors on the laptop. The PC screens had cursor artifacts, and the cursor did not change colors (stayed white) while MWOB was running there. When I turned off MWOB on the PC, then the cursor changed colors.

The cursor color remained white on the PC screen whenever running MWOB and continued leaving cursor artifacts until I'd done the following:

• Moved keyboard and mouse from KVM monitor to PC
• Disabled MWOB from PowerToys on PC and laptop
• Shutdown PC and laptop
• Unplugged power from KVM monitor
• Plugged in power to KVM monitor
• Moved keyboard and mouse back to KVM monitor (not sure if same USB ports were used)
• Started both PC and laptop
• Enabled MWOB from PowerToys on PC and laptop

I'm not sure if all steps would be needed for others, especially since the KVM monitor may have been a factor in my case, but it cleared up the cursor artifacts for me.

I'll post back here if I see the issue occurring again for me.

[asheroto]

Still happening for me with 0.76.0.

[miniksa]

+1 on 0.77.0. @crutkas, I have an internal repro if you need one. 😛

[crutkas]

@miniksa we'll target .79 for this (Feb 2024 iteration)

[yuyoyuppe]

Does it happen only while controlling a remote PC?
/needinfo

[asheroto]

Yes. On the local PC it looks completely normal.

[jfreiman]

I'm having the same issue using Power Toys MWB .0.79.0.0

The above options are selected on both Host and Remote Windows 11 PCs.

[Mooferman]

Although not a permanent fix, on the non-local machine, open Mouse without Borders and toggle Draw Mouse to Off then back on, this seems to fix it for the session on my machines.

[Diegovz01]

I also experienced this bug.