Mouse acceleration is set by default in Windows. It is one of those options, that you may want to turn off for better gameplay. We’ll explain how to disable mouse acceleration on windows 10, macOS here this in this article.
You have finally decided to take video games more seriously, have treated yourself to a fat PC, a good gaming keyboard and the best gaming mouse, but somehow you are not meeting your goals? If you lack the necessary accuracy, it doesn’t necessarily have to be due to a lack of skill.
You can also have the wrong settings in Windows or your game.But first of all, we clarify what it actually is and why you should deactivate the mouse acceleration (especially with shooters!).
What is mouse acceleration?
Basically, the explanation of mouse acceleration is quite simple, but some blog operators and Youtubers twist the actual function of the feature. For this reason, explained again very easily:
Assuming you move your mouse 1 cm on the mouse pad, it moves about 500 pixels across the screen. So far, so good – this happens both with and without the additional acceleration. This is only used when the mouse is moved quickly or jerkily on the mouse pad.
Here the software thinks that you want to move the mouse very far and supports you with an additional boost. Thus, with the same 1 cm on the mouse pad, you can reach around 700 pixels on the screen.
Mouse Acceleration – Why Relevant for Gaming?
As the name suggests, mouse acceleration relates your mouse speed to the distance the cursor travels on the screen. In short: the faster you move the mouse, the further the distance the cursor can travel.
Benefits of mouse acceleration
When the personal computer found its way into households in the mid-1980s, the mouse user quickly encountered the problem that long distances on the screen also led to long distances with the mouse. To avoid this scenario, the developers of the early operating systems invented mouse acceleration.
You know this: you have a new PC, a new mouse or just set up your operating system, and the mouse has not yet been set. If it is too slow, you have to keep picking up the mouse and rowing in circular movements so that the cursor reaches its destination.
If it is set too quickly, you keep going over the target and just don’t hit the spot you want to click. Finding a pleasant center is not really possible either.
The mouse acceleration is definitely helpful in desktop mode. You can use pure speed to decide whether you want to cover long distances or bring the cursor a little more precisely to its destination at the expense of a bit of precision.
Disadvantages of mouse acceleration
Unfortunately, gaming looks a little different. Depending on the game you are playing, the mouse acceleration will be more of an obstacle than a help. This quickly leads to problems, especially with shooters, since you don’t move a cursor here, but the crosshair (or your protagonist, who is holding the weapon, if you want to be precise).
So if a camera replaces the cursor, mouse acceleration quickly becomes unintuitive. Maybe first a somewhat dramatic quote, which I just found somewhere on Youtube in the comments:
Mouse acceleration is the downfall of your aiming. After turning it off, my accuracy increased by 900%, and I will never go back to this setting.
Ok, I know it sounds slightly exaggerated, but the message becomes clear: The topic is really important for first-person shooters. In particular, the following two points show why mouse acceleration is a problem when gaming.
Inaccuracy in stressful situations
If you play shooter in multiplayer, you will always find yourself in stressful situations. These are like things and are exactly what creates the thrill and, in the end, the fun of multiplayer games. You play competitively; if you want to win, so you must focus.
You have to aim as quickly as possible, as accurately as possible. Every millisecond you need longer to aim allows the opponent to see you and hit you. So you won’t have time to compensate for the small inaccuracies caused by mouse acceleration.
Lack of intuition
You have probably heard of the famous muscle memory. We don’t want to get too deep into medical details now. Just imagine that you save certain movement patterns that you need when playing, exactly where you need them: in your fingers.
There you can always call it up “without thinking about it”. This “saving” happens through repetition: the repeated execution of certain actions until they become reflexes. The mouse acceleration hinders you in the formation of these reflexes since it is unintuitive in the game situations of a shooter. In the end, you have to say: Those who learn longer will be left behind.
Before we explain how you can disable mouse acceleration, every person, PC setup, and game are different. What applies to CS:GO doesn’t necessarily apply to Fortnite BR. There are competitive games that benefit from mouse acceleration.
Strategy games like Starcraft and Civilization or card games like Hearthstone have a cursor and are thus use for it. Maybe you’re a gamer who can play shooters with mouse acceleration better because you’ve just got used to it and just don’t want to miss it today.
Perhaps you have a mouse that allows you to turn it on and off again at the push of a button. Experiment around. Perhaps you will be the first player to find a tactical advantage that mouse acceleration could be useful.
How do you play Mouse acceleration shooter? Building strategy games without? Let us know in the comments below!
You might also interested in Why my mouse is double clicking? Here’s how to fix!
Turn off mouse acceleration in Windows
To completely remove mouse acceleration from the system, you can deactivate it directly in Windows. I use these for private purposes out of habit and only deactivate them directly in games, if possible. In the next section, you will find a great step-by-step video on how you can deactivate this in Fortnite.
But now to the nitty-gritty: We’ll show you how to deactivate mouse acceleration in all common Windows versions in a few simple steps.
Here you can find out how to deactivate the acceleration of the mouse in Windows 10 & 8.1:
- Open the Start menu (the Windows icon on your taskbar)
- Don’t click on anything; just type “Mouse Settings” on your keyboard and click on Mouse Settings
- At the top right of the window, you will find More Mouse Options – click on it
- Click the Pointer Options tab
Next step – Find the acceleration options (same for all Windows versions):
- In the new window, you will find the movement area
- In it, click the box next to Improve pointer acceleration
- The hook should be gone
- Click Ok or Apply. Complete!
The whole thing works exactly the same for Windows 7 users. The only different thing is that you can find the mouse options differently.
How to find the mouse options under Windows 7:
- Opens the start menu
- Click on Settings
- Now click on the mouse
- Click the Pointer Options tab
Disable mouse acceleration on macOS X.
You can turn off mouse acceleration on your Mac at any time. With special programs or games, in particular, a mouse pointer that is too fast can disrupt the flow. We explain how to deactivate the corresponding option.
In contrast to Windows, you cannot switch off the mouse acceleration in macOS X via a graphical user interface. Instead, you have to use a command line:
- Opens the Spotlight search (cmd + space bar)
- Enter terminal and open the first hit
- Enter the following command into the terminal:
defaults write.GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
Restart the Mac or log out and back in to make sure the option really works. Also, note that it could reset the option as soon as you adjust the pointer speed in the settings.
How to turn off mouse acceleration in PUBG
This question comes up again and again, so we will include it here in our article. After all, PUBG is not exactly unpopular and deactivating mouse acceleration here is a bit more special. Just follow the steps below, and it’ll work:
Step 1: Find Engine.ini
- Opens the Start menu (Windows symbol on the taskbar)
- Don’t click anything. Instead, type %AppData% on your keyboard and press Enter
- Navigate through the following folders:
- · Open the “Engine.ini” file with a text editor
Step 2: insert option
- Scrolls all the way down in the text document
- Creates a new line of text and inserts the following there (the “b” at the beginning is correct):
Step 3: Save the file and close it
- Right-click the Engine.ini file and click Properties
- Under Attributes (below), check the box next to Read-only
- Click OK or Apply
The internet and the PUBG gaming community are unsure whether this setting actually has an impact or whether this is just a placebo effect. If you notice the effects or not: put it in the comments below!
Disable mouse acceleration in Fortnite
Some of our gamers use their PC for private purposes and gaming. Here the mouse acceleration can be an advantage, and you only want to deactivate it in the game itself.
With some games, this works very simply via the settings, such as Counterstrike. This means that your mouse is faster in regular use, but it is trimmed to maximum precision as soon as you need your aim in the game.
With other games, on the other hand, you have to rummage through the files and turn them off manually. Fortnite has not yet offered a way to deactivate the acceleration of the mouse in the game settings.
Fortnite often ranks ahead of League of Legends on Twitch – yes, I know, crazy. Therefore, of course, the instructions should not be missing here. Simply work off the following points:
Step 1: Find GameUserSettings.ini
- Opens the Start menu (Windows symbol on the taskbar)
- Don’t click anything. Instead, type %LOCALAPPDATA% on your keyboard and press Enter
- Navigate through the following folders:
- Then the file “GameUserSettings.ini” opens with a text editor
Step 2: change mouse acceleration
- Searches for “DisableMouseAcceleration = False”
- Changes this phrase / line to:
Step 3: Save the file and close it
Step 4: protect the file
- Right-click the GameUserSettings.ini file and click Properties
- Under Attributes (below), tick the box next to “Read-only.”
- Click OK or Apply
If you want to change your mouse settings in the game, you have to undo the last step and unlock the file first. After any changes, look for “DisableMouseAcceleration” to be on the safe side and see whether it is still set to True. Then lock them again.
Here, too, it is not yet 100% clear whether this option really impacts the game or, as in PUBG, only triggers a placebo effect.
After all, the game is based on the same engine as PUBG. Regardless of whether it has brought you something or not: In the comments with your experiences!
Disable mouse acceleration in Counter-Strike CS: GO
As one of the most popular esports shooters, CS:GO should, of course, not be missing from this list. The following are all you need to know about mouse acceleration in CS: GO:
- Go to the settings of the game
- Now go to Help & Options in the menu
- Click on Keyboard / Mouse
- Set the Mouse Acceleration option to OFF
- If you want to be on the safe side, also set the raw data usage option to ON
If you have to go quickly, you can also set this via the console. To do this, open the console and type the following two commands into
The following video explains the topic again very clearly using the example of CS: GO – definitely worth a look.
Two more little bonus tips
It still didn’t work out, right? Then take a look at the following 2 points.
Developer- specific driver settings
Some mouse developers develop their own drivers that run on special software. It is, therefore, possible that your mouse still has its own settings for acceleration. If all the explanations in this article have failed, see whether this is the case with you.
Also, deactivate in-game mouse acceleration.
To be on the safe side, deactivate the mouse acceleration option in every game you are playing.
That’s all you need to know about mouse acceleration! Have fun with your now precise and linear mouse movements (both on desktop and while gaming).
To a good aiming and a happy questioning!
You can also read:
