One of my minor pet peeves with graphical interfaces on computers, regardless of operating system, has long been the mouse pointer/cursor. By default, it's usually very small and unobtrusive, and either black or white, which makes it somewhat hard to see and easy to lose track of. This is not a new problem. I have been losing track of my mouse pointer for about as long as I've been using a mouse. Of course, now that I am approaching the upper reaches of middle age and my eyesight isn't what it once was, the issue has become increasingly acute. Fortunately, I have found that I can easily address this problem on all three platforms I use regularly—Mac OS, Chrome OS and Windows—without installing any additional software. As a result, my mouse pointer is larger and more visible on all of my screens. Not only are they larger, but at least on my Windows and Chrome OS computers, they're also an obnoxious shade of purple for added visibility. Colored pointers are also now an available option under Mac OS Monterey, but I'm running a slightly older version that doesn't include this feature, so mine remains black.
The process for each platform is a little different, but not difficult. On Mac OS and Chrome OS, the settings are found under the accessibility settings, while on Windows, they're under the Mouse settings. We'll take each in turn.
Mac OS—Open System Preferences and click the Accessibility icon. In the dialog box that appears, select 'Display' on the menu at the left and then click the 'Cursor' tab at the top of the box and you will get a slider to adjust the size of your pointer. As mentioned earlier, Mac OS Monterey also includes an option to select the colors of the fill and outline of your pointer. Even without the option to change the pointer color from black, it is still quite helpful for it to be a bit larger. My only question is why these settings are located under 'Display' instead of under 'Pointer Control'.
Chrome OS—For all their simplicity, configuring Chromebooks can be more than a little complicated when it comes to accessing advanced settings. At least this one didn't involve activating any experimental feature flags, as is so often the case, such as turning on the ability to disable and enable the touch pad.
To access these advanced Chrome OS mouse settings, you need to go through several layers of menus. Begin by clicking the clock in the lower right corner of the screen and then clicking the gear icon at the top of the menu that pops up. For simplicity's sake, I keep that gear icon pinned to the 'shelf' at the bottom of the screen. Once you're in the Settings screen, scroll to the bottom and click 'Advanced' to see more settings. Click 'Accessibility Features' and scroll down until you see a group called 'Mouse and Touchpad'. You will see a switch on the right side labeled 'Show large mouse cursor'. Click this to turn it on and you will see a slider, with which you can adjust the size of the pointer. Just below this is a 'Cursor color' menu to select a color.
Windows 10—Windows takes a slightly more logical approach, actually grouping these controls under the mouse settings. To access them, click the 'Start' icon in the lower left corner of the screen and select the gear icon to open the System Settings. Select 'Devices' and then 'Mouse' on the following screen. Scroll down and you will see a heading called 'Related Settings'. Under that, you will see 'Adjust mouse and cursor size'. Click that and you are presented with controls for both the size and color of the mouse pointer.
Somehow, I had stumbled onto this setting on my Windows laptop long before I searched for them on my MacBook Pro and Chromebooks, but I am now glad to have a larger pointer on all of those machines, plus my office computer. A bigger cursor is a small thing, but it does make a real difference. Even though this setting is buried under a few layers of menus in all three operating systems, it's definitely worth seeking out.
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