How to Get Superfast Mouse, Touchpad Speeds in Windows

Sometimes, no matter how much you turn up the settings, your touchpad (or other pointing device) just doesn't cover enough ground in a single stroke. You shouldn't have to lift up your finger, move it back to the other side of the pad and swipe again to make it across your desktop. And, If you have a laptop with a pointing stick such as a Lenovo ThinkPad, you really don't want to have to push the stick really hard just to move around.

Fortunately, with a simple registry tweak, Windows 10 and previous versions provide a way to push your pointer speed and sensitivity higher than the control panel allows.

Before You Begin

Before you edit your registry, make sure your pointer speed is turned up to the maximum in your touchpad / pointing stick software or in the mouse control panel. To get there:

1. Navigate to the Windows Control Panel. You can get there by opening the Start menu and searching for "control panel."

2. Open the mouse menu. If you don't see the Mouse icon, set the "View by" menu to Large icons.

3. Open your touchpad driver (if there's a link to it). It may have its own tab (ex: Dell Touchpad)

4. Set the pointer speed to max. You may have to set it separately for the touchpad and pointing stick.

5. Navigate to the pointer options tab in the Mouse Properties window.

6. Move the pointer speed slider all the way to the right and uncheck "Enhance pointer precision."

7. Click OK.

Edit Your Registry for Maximum Pointer Speed

1. Open the Registry Editor. You can get there by hitting Windows + R, entering regedit in the box and hitting Enter.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse by opening the navigation tree in the left window pane.

3. Set the MouseSpeed to 2 by double-clicking on MouseSpeed and then entering 2 in the value field.

4. Set MouseThreshold1 to 0.

5. Set MouseThreshold2 to 0.

6. Close the registry editor and reboot your PC.

Windows 10 Performance and Productivity

The official Geeks Geek, as his weekly column is titled, Avram Piltch has guided the editorial and production of Laptopmag.com since 2007. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram programmed several of LAPTOP's real-world benchmarks, including the LAPTOP Battery Test. He holds a master's degree in English from NYU.