Mouse, keyboard and input latency
Mouse acceleration and the pointer precision curve
MouseSpeed, MouseThreshold1, MouseThreshold2 and SmoothMouseXCurve
Last updated
How do you fully disable mouse acceleration in Windows?
Windows applies pointer acceleration through a feature called Enhance pointer precision, controlled by three registry values under HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse. Setting MouseSpeed, MouseThreshold1 and MouseThreshold2 to 0 disables it. This is one of the few input tweaks with an unambiguous, immediately perceptible effect, and it is the same thing as clearing the checkbox in Mouse Properties.
Registry location and values
MouseSpeed
- Location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse- Value name
MouseSpeed- Type
REG_SZ- Default
- 1
| Value | What it does |
|---|---|
0 | Acceleration off. |
1 | Acceleration on, single threshold. |
2 | Acceleration on, both thresholds. |
MouseThreshold1
- Location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse- Value name
MouseThreshold1- Type
REG_SZ- Default
- 6
| Value | What it does |
|---|---|
0 | Disabled. |
6 | Default. Pointer speed doubles above this movement rate. |
MouseThreshold2
- Location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse- Value name
MouseThreshold2- Type
REG_SZ- Default
- 10
| Value | What it does |
|---|---|
0 | Disabled. |
10 | Default. Pointer speed quadruples above this movement rate when MouseSpeed is 2. |
MouseSensitivity
- Location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse- Value name
MouseSensitivity- Type
REG_SZ- Default
- 10
| Value | What it does |
|---|---|
10 | The only 1:1 value. The pointer speed slider's sixth notch. Every other value applies a multiplier that can skip or duplicate counts. |
What Windows actually does with this
With acceleration enabled, Windows scales pointer movement by how fast the mouse is moving, so the same physical distance produces different cursor travel depending on speed. The thresholds are the movement rates at which the multipliers kick in. Separately, MouseSensitivity applies a fixed multiplier to raw counts; at any value other than 10 that multiplier is not 1, so counts are scaled and the relationship between hand movement and cursor movement stops being exact.
What it affects
Every application that reads pointer position rather than raw input. Games using raw input (most competitive shooters) bypass this entirely, which is why disabling acceleration changes desktop feel more than in-game feel for many players.
Is it worth changing?
Worth doing, and one of the few settings here where the effect is immediate and obvious. Set MouseSensitivity to 10 as well -- it is the only value that does not scale your counts. Be aware that if your game uses raw input, you are fixing the desktop and menus rather than your aim, and that is still worth having consistent.
What can go wrong
None. Purely a user preference setting under HKCU.
How to undo it
Mouse Properties → Pointer Options → tick Enhance pointer precision, and set the pointer speed slider to the middle (sixth) notch. Or restore MouseSpeed 1, MouseThreshold1 6, MouseThreshold2 10.
Create a System Restore Point before editing the registry. Every setting on this page is reversible, but a restore point is the difference between undoing one change and reinstalling Windows.
Which Windows versions this applies to
All modern Windows versions.
Mouse acceleration and the pointer precision curve: common questions
Does this affect games that use raw input?
No. Raw input reads device counts directly from the HID stack, before the pointer pipeline applies acceleration or sensitivity scaling. Most competitive shooters use raw input, and many expose it as an in-game option worth enabling.
What about SmoothMouseXCurve and SmoothMouseYCurve?
They are the binary acceleration curve used when Enhance pointer precision is on. With acceleration disabled they are not consulted, so replacing them with a 'linear' curve is redundant once MouseSpeed is 0.
Sources
Does JINSHI Tweaks change this?
This page documents settings that correspond to the following toggles in JINSHI PC Tweaks: Disable Mouse Acceleration, Linear Mouse Input.
The reference above is written to be usable without the product. Everything here can be applied by hand for free. What the application adds is that the change is applied in one pass, a System Restore Point is created first, and each toggle can be reversed individually.