Mouse without borders: Inconsistent pointer speed across devices

[ygoe]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.71.0

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

No

Area(s) with issue?

Mouse Without Borders

Steps to reproduce

• Use the mouse attached to a PC with a single display, 1920/1200px, 100%
• Connect to a laptop with a builtin display, 2560/1600px, 150% and an external display, 1920/1200px, 100%, set up as extended desktop (not mirroring), horizontal alignment
• Move the mouse pointer on the PC as you would always do
• Move the mouse pointer over to the laptop and its two displays (internal and external)

✔️ Expected Behavior

The mouse pointer moves at the same speed and acceleration everywhere.

❌ Actual Behavior

The speed and acceleration on the PC is as always.

• Without the setting "Move relatively": The speed on both laptop displays is too quick only horizontally (vertical speed is normal, acceleration is good)
• With the setting "Move relatively": The speed on both laptop displays is a bit slow and the acceleration on both laptop displays is extreme. The mouse pointer would jump across the display at moderate mouse movement speed.

It's hard to work on the remote machine (laptop) with either setting from the host (PC).

Other Software

No response

[esidegallery]

I also am having this issue. An additional note, which may shed light on the issue:

If the secondary machine's extended displays are arranged horizontally, then the horizontal mouse acceleration is too fast. If the extended displays are arranged vertically, then vertical mouse acceleration is too fast. So it seems to be proportional to to 'total' extended desktop size.

Using 'Move mouse relatively' does seem to address the disproportional horizontal/vertical acceleration, but as @ygoe says, acceleration in general is too fast on the secondary machine and it doesn't feel right.

[MaanTyringe]

Seeing this exact issue on v0.74.1. If I disable one of the monitors on the secondary machine, the horizontal speed is as expected again.

[gnunes76]

Hello, greetings. I'm also having the same problem here. This only started to happen after I "migrated" from the "standalone Mouse Without Borders" to the one built into PowerToys.

Note: Unfortunately I am returning to the standalone version. One thing I noticed is that in this "separate" version there is respect for the Windows configuration ("mouse settings").

Thanks!

[Delphima]

Hello, I'm happy to see PowerToys has integrated this function. As I am working on 2 PCs 4 monitors(all 1920x1080, each PC 2 monitors vertical to 2x2), and have used Barrier since 2022, it always brings me a good experience. Compared with Barrier Mouse w/o Borders are connecting faster and shortcut enabled/disabled connection, which Barrier doesn't have.

Unfortunately, I decide to disable 'Mouse w/o Borders', and turn back to Barrier, because the mouse moving speed doesn't synchronize between the 2 pcs. I've tried every possible setting at the 'Mouse w/o Borders' in the dashboard, however, the experience is still not the same as Barrier. It's likely to be related to moving and accelerating vertically or horizontally.

Anyway, it's glad to see Microsoft made the trial to have this function.

[marcos33998]

There is a easy solution. Disable improve mouse accuracy in windows mouse settings of your second machine. After doing this I feel that my mouse has the same speed on both machine

[Delphima]

There is a easy solution. Disable improve mouse accuracy in windows mouse settings of your second machine. After doing this I feel that my mouse has the same speed on both machine

This is a reasonable resolution, however, my preference and mouse product mode would decrease my user experience. So, I still look forward to a better algorithm by improving MWB.

BTW, currently I've connected my 2 PCs by physical cable, rather than a Wi-Fi router. The Barrier now can give me the perfect experience. I hope MWB can be the same perfect shortly. :)

[ygoe]

Actually I just migrated away from Power Toys to Barrier after reading about it in another of the MWB issues around here. And so far I'm very satisfied. It doesn't do everything perfect, but it does everything better than Power Toys. And I very much like the idea of having a dedicated application for a single task. Now I can uninstall Power Toys again from all machines as this was really the only reason I went with it in the first place. Those regular updates for nothing I use were also not a pleasant experience.

[LWChris]

Disable improve mouse accuracy in windows mouse settings of your second machine.

Where would that be? Can you provide a screenshot of that option?

[Delphima]

Disable improve mouse accuracy in windows mouse settings of your second machine.

Where would that be? Can you provide a screenshot of that option?

[LWChris]

@Delphima Wow, interesting. In German locale, this option is named "Zeigerbeschleunigung verbessern", which translates "Enhance pointer acceleration". That's why I didn't find it.

As far as I can tell, enabling this option means that the pointer always starts at a slow movement speed, but if you move your mouse for longer and further distances, it ramps up to the set mouse speed. Therefore if you move the mouse only a little bit every time, the pointer moves very slowly, allowing you for pixel-accurate changes in one instance, but fast travel in others.

I never liked that feeling, so it has always been disabled for me, and still I had this problem. So sadly, this isn't the right solution for me. The only thing that works for me is disabling the second monitor on the other computer, as well as disabling "Move mouse relatively". Otherwise, mouse speed will differ, even if everything (mouse speed settings, screen resolution, screen zoom, display size) is the same on both machines.

MWB should really fix this. It makes no sense that horizontal mouse speed differs depending on whether the machine has 1920x1080 or 3840x1080.

[the86freak]

I added a Task in the windows-task-scheduler which restarts the MouseWithoutBordersHelper to restart eery 5min on both Computers that seems to work.

[soleous]

I'm experiancing this issue and I have multiscreen setups, but monitors have the same res. Up and down are as expected but side to side is different and also has mouse acceloration, which I disable by default. Is there any workarounds for this?

[leafarilongamor]

I'm experiancing this issue and I have multiscreen setups, but monitors have the same res. Up and down are as expected but side to side is different and also has mouse acceloration, which I disable by default. Is there any workarounds for this?

Check the frequency of the displays. I was having issues when I was mixing 30hz from my 4k monitor with 60hz of the other monitors connected to the same laptop and the displays on the other laptops as well. When I changed the cable from the 4k monitor for one that supports 60hz the cursos speed got smooth in all displays/devices.

[BrandonStudio]

I have 60Hz 4K A and 60Hz 1080p B, same issue on both sides.

[ygoe]

Meanwhile I have tested Barrier for some time and now also Input Director. Both have no issues with mouse movement. Barrier has issues with keyboard layouts, e.g. the ` dead key of the de-DE layout isn't reproduced remotely. Input Director works fine so far and even file transfers through the clipboard have worked. So I'd recommend everybody in this issue to move on to Input Director. It's free for non-commercial use and really easy to set up. I'm not expecting any improvements here anymore.