Mouse Pointer Trails setting doesn’t survive reboot

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This has been bothering me for a while. I can set mouse Pointer Trails on using the Pointer Options tab in the Mouse Control Panel item. I set it, click Apply and it works as expected. However, the setting becomes “unset” after a reboot (I’m running Windows 10 21H1).

My mouse happens to be a Logitech MX Master connected via Bluetooth. Other changes made to Mouse properties in that Control Panel item (like showing the pointer location when clicking the Ctrl key) survive reboots.

I know it’s a small thing, but with high dpi displays and aging eyesight, mouse pointer trails help me a lot.

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I dont know if that could repair the issue, but I would try to install Logitech SW for your mouse, it contains updated drivers.

https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025141274

When installing, select “No, thanks” on this screen.

If this does not help, unistall the SW. Seems like some minor issue, that is hard to repair.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, that didn’t help. I should also mention that I had previously installed “Logi Options” which allows customization of the MX Master mouse buttons and more. I uninstalled Logi Options, installed the Set Point software (with reboots after each step) but no change in the behavior.

TBH, I don’t think the Logitech Mouse is the issue. My PC is a ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2. It has its own built-in keyboard, touchpad and TrackPoint. So pointer trails should be part of the drivers that come with it and should work (I’m pretty sure they’re just using Microsoft’s drivers).

I’m leaning toward the problem being some issue with the registry key associated with pointer trails. But I don’t know what key that is.

Have you (or anyone else) tried setting that option and checked if the setting survies after reboot?

Anyway, thanks for replying and trying to help me.

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I found this key Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse has a value called MouseTrails which can hold a data value from -1 to 7. I backed up the key (for safety) then deleted the MouseTrails value.

Setting up Pointer Trails in the Control Panel recreates the MouseTrails value. But no change in behavior. Whatever the the MouseTrails value is it resets to -1 (yielding no trails) upon reboot. I tried deleting the MouseTrails value and re-added it manually with RegEdit. But still no change in its insistence on resetting to -1 on reboot.

Anyone with an idea how to solve this or at least to confirm it’s an issue on their PC?

Thanks in advance.

Phil

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-1 does not seem to be a standard value in typical situations.

Is it possible you have some third-party tweak for color correction or game performance being applied on restart?

Setting HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse\MouseTrails to -1 turns on mouse trails but sets the trail length to zero.
…
-1 = A buggy setting that seems to enable the cursor trail render but has no actual trails

How to apply color management to the Windows 7 mouse cursor?

When using mouse trails, Windows disables hardware acceleration for the cursor. -1 tells Windows to not draw any trails but still operate the cursor in software mode.

[5700XT] Mouse cursor hardware acceleration is one potential cause for stutter, workaround inside

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.2361 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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The registry entry for pointer trails is located at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

The MouseTrails string sets it as follows:

• a value of 0 disables trails

• a value of 2-7 sets the length of the trail from short to long

If the value keeps getting reset when you restart, you can create a batch file that runs on every restart to reset it to your preferred value (I use such a file myself to restore numerous registry values that always get reset during restarts.)

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First, thanks everyone for the input. I’m still having the issue. Here’s what I tried most recently and found out:

1. I set up a batch file to run on startup that sets the HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse\MouseTrails registry key.
2. The key was properly set but mouse trails did not turn on! I looked at the setting in Control Panel and it was unchecked!
3. If I check the enable box in Control Panel, the trails turn on at the setting I put into the registry key with my batch file.
4. I did look at my desktop PC and, unlike this laptop, MouseTrail settings properly survive reboots – so it’s something about this Thinkpad X1 Extreme Gen. 2 laptop.

Regarding the question about 3rd party tweeks for color correction, this laptop is used for Photo Editing. It is, I believe, supposed to have software to allow screen color correction, though I don’t see it. Also, this laptop has a discrete graphic card and has the Nvidia drivers and Control Panel installed. Finally, I have PowerToys installed which has an option for managing the Windows color settings. But I don’t think any of those should impact the MouseTrails setting.

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Ok, here’s the problem:

The registry settings for the mouse are “normally” only read during startup so changing the MouseTrails value after the system has started doesn’t actually change the setting it’s already using (the change requires a restart to take effect which doesn’t work in your case.)

The reason the pointer trails immediately changes when you click the Display pointer trails checkbox is because windows “forces” the system to read & apply the new MouseTrails value.

Well, we can use a powershell script to do the same thing as follows:

Add-Type @"
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public class PInvoke {
[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int uiAction, int uiParam, int[] pvParam, int fWinIni);
[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int uiAction, int uiParam, System.IntPtr pvParam, int fWinIni);
}
"@

$mouse = Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Mouse'

# MouseTrails -> SPI_SETMOUSETRAILS
[PInvoke]::SystemParametersInfo(0x005D, $mouse.MouseTrails, $null, 0)

Simple copy the above code and save it as a .ps1 file.

Since you already have a batch file that enters the value you want into the registry, here’s the extra code you need to add to it so it’ll run the above script.

@PowerShell -windowstyle hidden -noexit -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "YOURSCRIPT.ps1"

Note: the above code must be located after the code that changes the registry value in the batch file.

I tested this on my Windows 10 21H1 and it works just fine (files attached – you’ll need to modify the paths to match where you place them on your system.)

BTW, if you don’t want to see the Command prompt window that pops up for a short time when your batch file runs, simple create a shortcut to your batch file, set it to always run minimized, and run that at startup instead of the actual batch file.

1 user thanked author for this post.

BiltmoreLaker

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Thanks so much! Your fix works perfectly.

I used your files and put a shortcut in the startup folder set, as you suggested, to always run minimized.

Phil

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