How to Turn Off Mouse Acceleration Everywhere (Windows + In-Game)

Mouse acceleration is the reason your aim feels different every single time you flick.

Here’s what it does. The cursor doesn’t move based on how far you drag the mouse. It moves based on how fast you drag it.

So a slow six inches across the pad and a quick six inches across the pad land the cursor in two totally different spots.

Think of it like a gas pedal that changes the rules on you. Same push, but sometimes you creep forward and sometimes you launch across the parking lot depending on how quick your foot moved.

You’d never learn to park a car like that. And you’ll never build muscle memory on a mouse like that either.

I’m going to keep coming back to that gas pedal, because once it clicks, all of this makes sense.

The goal here is simple. We want the same physical motion to move the cursor the same distance every time. That’s it. Let’s turn this thing off everywhere it’s hiding.

What mouse acceleration actually is (and why it wrecks your aim)

Windows watches how fast you’re moving the mouse and adds extra distance when you move quick.

Microsoft calls it “Enhance pointer precision.” That name is a little cruel, because for gaming it does the opposite of precise.

Your brain builds aim through repetition. Flick to the head, flick to the head, a thousand times, until your hand just knows the distance.

Acceleration breaks that loop. The distance keeps changing based on speed, so your hand never gets to memorize anything.

Back to the car. A steering wheel works because the input is consistent. Turn it the same amount, get the same result, every time.

Consistency is the whole point. Acceleration takes it away.

The one Windows setting that matters most

This is the big one. Ninety percent of people are done after this step.

Open Settings, then go to Bluetooth & devices, then Mouse.

Scroll down and click Additional mouse settings. On some builds it says Additional mouse options over on the right side.

A little window pops up. Click the Pointer Options tab at the top.

You’ll see a checkbox that says Enhance pointer precision. Uncheck it.

Hit Apply, then OK. Done.

If you’d rather skip the menus, hit the Windows key, type “mouse settings,” and you’ll land in the same place.

Unchecking that one box kills the acceleration Windows adds to everything you do on the desktop.

Set a clean pointer speed while you’re in there

Same Pointer Options tab, look at the top. There’s a slider labeled Select a pointer speed.

Put it dead center. That’s the 6th notch out of 11.

The middle notch is the one spot where Windows moves your cursor at a true 1:1 ratio. No scaling up, no scaling down.

Every other position on that slider is quietly multiplying or dividing your movement before it hits the screen. You just turned off acceleration, so don’t undo the good work by leaving the slider in a weird spot.

If your cursor feels too slow after this, that’s what your mouse DPI is for. Change the speed on the mouse itself, not in Windows.

Middle slider notch, then adjust feel with DPI on the mouse.

Going deeper: the MarkC fix for true 1:1

Here’s the part most guides won’t tell you.

Even with that box unchecked, older versions of Windows didn’t give you a perfectly clean 1:1 curve. There was a tiny bit of movement math still baked in.

A guy known as MarkC built a registry fix for this years ago, and people still use it today. It rewrites the pointer curve so your input goes to the screen completely untouched.

You download the pack, run the registry file that matches your Windows version and display scaling (like 100%, 125%, 150%), and reboot.

Should you bother? For most people, no.

Modern Windows 11 with the box unchecked and the slider centered is clean enough that you won’t feel the difference. The MarkC fix is for the folks who want to know it’s mathematically perfect and won’t sleep otherwise.

If you go that route, back up your registry first. Poking around in there without a backup is how you end up reinstalling Windows on a Tuesday night.

The built-in steps cover 99 percent of people. MarkC is for the last 1 percent who want zero doubt.

Check your mouse software, because it can add its own

You can turn off acceleration in Windows and still have it running. Because your mouse software can pile its own on top.

Gaming mice from Logitech, Razer, SteelSeries and the rest come with their own control panels, and some ship with acceleration turned on out of the box.

In Logitech G HUB, open your mouse, find the pointer or sensitivity settings, and make sure Acceleration is off.

In Razer Synapse, go to the mouse tab and look for Mouse Acceleration. Set it to zero or toggle it off.

In SteelSeries GG, check the engine settings for your mouse and confirm there’s no acceleration curve applied.

Same idea for any other brand. Open the software, hunt for anything that says acceleration or “sensitivity curve,” and shut it down.

This is the gas pedal getting a second gas pedal wired to it. Two systems each adding their own extra distance, stacking on top of each other.

Windows off but mouse software on means it’s still on. Check both.

Turning it off in-game with raw input

Now the fun part. Because games have their own acceleration, and their own way to shut it off.

The magic words here are raw input.

Raw input tells the game to read your mouse movement straight from the sensor and ignore whatever Windows is doing to the cursor. It’s a clean pipe from your hand to the game.

When a game has a Raw Input toggle, turn it on. That single setting bypasses most of the Windows layer for you.

Here’s where to look in the big ones.

Counter-Strike 2: Settings, then Mouse. Turn Raw Input on and set Mouse Acceleration to Off. CS2 makes it easy.

Valorant: Settings, General, scroll to the mouse section. There’s no acceleration slider because Riot just uses raw input and leaves acceleration off by default. Nothing to do but confirm it.

Apex Legends: Mouse/Keyboard settings. Set Mouse Acceleration to Off. Apex reads raw input when acceleration is off.

Overwatch 2: Controls, then the mouse section. Find Mouse Acceleration and turn it off.

Fortnite: Fortnite doesn’t apply mouse acceleration on PC, so there’s nothing to toggle. Just set your sensitivity and go.

For any game not on this list, open the mouse or controls menu and read every line. You’re hunting for two things: a word that says acceleration to turn off, or raw input to turn on.

If a game has neither and it feels floaty, that’s usually a sign the developer baked acceleration in with no off switch. Not much you can do there except pick your battles.

Raw input on, acceleration off. That’s the combo in almost every game.

Test that it actually worked

Don’t just trust that you flipped the right switches. Prove it.

The quickest check is the swipe test. Line your mouse up on one side of the pad and pick a spot on screen for your cursor.

Now drag slowly across the pad to the other side and note where the cursor stops.

Move the mouse back, then drag the exact same distance as fast as you can.

If acceleration is dead, the cursor lands in the same spot both times. If it shoots way further on the fast swipe, something’s still on and you missed a setting.

There are also free browser tools that graph your mouse movement and tell you if any acceleration is present. Search for a mouse acceleration test, wiggle your mouse around, and read the result.

Same swipe, same landing spot. That’s how you know it’s gone.

Quick answers to the stuff people always ask

Does turning off acceleration lower my DPI or sensitivity? No. DPI is untouched. You’re only removing the speed-based scaling. If the cursor feels slow now, bump your DPI on the mouse.

Should everyone turn it off? If you play shooters or do any precision work, yes. If you only browse and type, honestly you might like the extra reach acceleration gives you. It’s a preference, not a law.

Why does it keep turning itself back on? This one drives people nuts. Big Windows updates, especially the jump from 10 to 11, have a habit of quietly re-checking Enhance pointer precision. After any major update, pop back into Pointer Options and confirm the box is still empty.

What about Mac? Mac has acceleration on by default and no simple off switch in System Settings. You’ll need a Terminal command or a small app like a sensitivity utility to kill it. Different setup, same goal.

Turn off the box in Windows. Center the slider. Check your mouse software. Flip on raw input in every game. Then swipe-test it.

Do that and your hand finally gets to learn one consistent motion. Which is the entire reason we started messing with that gas pedal in the first place.