Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10 includes a Mouse Utilities feature that can highlight your mouse pointer and show a colored circle around clicks, making it ideal for video tutorials to show where you are clicking. This utility is free, safe, and developed by Microsoft, so it has no viruses or bloatware.
Key features of PowerToys Mouse Utilities:
- Find My Mouse: Press the left Ctrl key twice to activate a spotlight circle around your cursor.
- Mouse Highlighter: Shows colored circles on mouse clicks (left click and right click can have different colors and opacity).
- You can customize colors, opacity, animation duration, and the size of the highlight circle.
- It works well for presentations and screen recordings, making clicks very visible to viewers.
- You can exclude certain apps from the effect if needed.
- The utility is easy to enable and configure through the PowerToys settings.
How to get and use it:
- Download Microsoft PowerToys from the official GitHub page or Microsoft Store to ensure safety and no bloatware.
- Install and open PowerToys.
- Navigate to Mouse Utilities in the left sidebar.
- Enable Find My Mouse and Mouse Highlighter features.
- Customize the colors and behavior to your preference.
- Use the shortcut (default is double press Left Ctrl) to highlight the cursor, and clicks will show the colored circles automatically.
This tool is widely recommended for Windows 10 users making tutorial videos because it is reliable, customizable, and free.
If you want the official download and documentation, start here:
- PowerToys official site and download: Microsoft PowerToys on GitHub
- Mouse Utilities documentation: Microsoft Learn PowerToys Mouse Utilities
- A helpful tutorial video showing how to enable and customize mouse highlighting: YouTube video from 2024
The official GitHub page for Microsoft PowerToys, where you can download the latest installer (including Mouse Utilities), is:
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases
- On that page, scroll down to the Assets section under the latest release and select the appropriate installer for your system (e.g.,
PowerToysUserSetup-x64.exefor most Windows 10 users). - This is the safest and most direct source for the latest, virus-free, and bloatware-free PowerToys installer.
There is no officially supported version of Microsoft PowerToys for Windows Server 2019. PowerToys requires Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or newer, or any version of Windows 11. Windows Server 2019 is based on Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763), which does not meet the minimum requirements for PowerToys installation.
Attempts to install PowerToys on Windows Server 2019 result in a setup error stating:
“Setup Failed – This Application is only supported on Windows 10 version v2004 (build 19041) or higher.”
There are no older or alternative official builds of PowerToys that support Windows Server 2019, and this limitation is confirmed in both Microsoft documentation and user reports.
If you are running Windows Server 2022 (which is based on Windows 10 version 21H2 or newer), PowerToys should work, but for Windows Server 2019, it is not supported. The official PowerToys GitHub releases page is here for reference, but it will not provide a compatible installer for Windows Server 2019.
Summary Table
References for installation and requirements:
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