Is there a Win7 shortcut to position mouse in center of primary screen?

Question

I have a three monitor set up on Windows 7 and I sometimes lose track of where my cursor is. Is there any Windows shortcut to reset the mouse position? I'm guessing there is not, but might there be a way to set up a simple macro I could bind to a key combination to set my cursor to a default location, such as the center of the primary display?

Solution 1

Combining a few of the above ideas, I came up with this script. It's tested and working.

CentreCursor.ps1

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing") | out-null
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") | out-null
$bounds = [System.Windows.Forms.Screen]::PrimaryScreen.Bounds
$center = $bounds.Location
$center.X += $bounds.Width / 2
$center.Y += $bounds.Height / 2
[System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position = $center

Save this script in a convenient folder, and create a shortcut in your All Programs menu:

Target: %systemroot%\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File "C:\Path To Script\CentreCursor.ps1"

Shortcut key: Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C

Run: Minimized

Now whenever you press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C, your cursor will return home.

Edit: While it doesn't seem to be a requirement on my computer, I've added Patrick's suggestion to the shortcut.

Solution 2

Turning on "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key" is one option. This is especially useful if it is currently changed to some custom mouse pointer by an application, like a paint brush, that is harder to see.

Solution 3

You can do this fairly easily with a software program called UltraMon.

In the options section there is a place to specify HotKeys. You can see screenshot where I've setup a hot key for Crtl + Shift + C

Solution 4

The following AutoHotkey command sequence will instantly move the mouse to the center of the primary display:

CoordMode, Mouse, Screen
MouseMove, A_ScreenWidth/2, A_ScreenHeight/2, 0

For example, compile the following script:

CoordMode, Mouse, Screen
MouseMove, A_ScreenWidth/2, A_ScreenHeight/2, 0
ExitApp

You can then create a shortcut (.lnk) to it with a shortcut key of your choice. :)

Solution 5

Here's an AutoIt script to do it. AutoIt can compile its scripts to .exe, which you could then assign a hotkey.

Dim Const $SPI_GETWORKAREA = 0x0030

$rect = DllStructCreate("long left;long top;long right;long bottom")

DllCall("user32.dll", "BOOL", "SystemParametersInfo", "UINT", $SPI_GETWORKAREA, "UINT", 0, "ptr", DllStructGetPtr($rect), "UINT", 0)

Dim $left = DllStructGetData($rect, 1)
Dim $top = DllStructGetData($rect, 2)
Dim $right = DllStructGetData($rect, 3)
Dim $bottom = DllStructGetData($rect, 4)

MouseMove($left + (($right - $left) / 2), $top + (($bottom - $top) / 2))

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

I could write you a program that does this when you click - but you would have to find the mouse cursor and move it to the program icon to click. :-(

[Admin]

@DaveBecker, how about a program that does it on execute? Then you can launch it with a shortcut-key.

[Admin]

I personally think everyone should turn on the position cursor to the default button. Everyone always looks for the program window first, then thinks about moving the cursor to such. Also I believe everyone should change their cursor scheme to the Extra Large Black cursor, since there is a plague of white/light colored backgrounds.

[Patrick Seymour]

PowerShell scripts require the execution policy to be changed, if you haven't done so already. You would need to change it permanently or run PowerShell.exe with the "-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned" argument.

[Patrick Seymour]

PowerShell scripts require the execution policy to be changed, if you haven't done so already. You would need to change it permanently or run PowerShell.exe with the "-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned" argument.

[Brian]

Looks good but $40US is a bit much if this is all a user wants to do.

[Scott Chamberlain]

Pointer Trails is also very helpful, makes a much bigger target to see when you wiggle the mouse around.

[tehDorf]

@Hand-E-Food You must have changed the execution policy on your machine or something because I was unable to get your answer to work as written. I had to change the target to %systemroot%\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned "C:\PathToScript\CentreCursor.ps1" to get it to work. I re-ordered the arguments, Patrick's command had to come before the file. I've updated your answer to reflect this.

[tehDorf]

Oh, yeah. Thank you @Hand-E-Food and everyone else who's answer was combined into this one!

[Hand-E-Food]

Glad to help! It taught me something new. (And "centre" is perfectly acceptable spelling outside of the US.) ;-)

[YumYumYum]

Its not FREE, can you share FREE tools too.

[Pavel]

+1 In my company, there is Ultramon installed on every computer by default, any already many of my coworkers owe you one for this (delivered by me) :)

[simpleuser]

FYI, Windows 10 would not accept a path with spaces, and %systemroot% is not set. I had to run the command in the directory with the file, and run it as C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned .\CenterCursor.ps1

[Hand-E-Food]

@user1663987, to use spaces in the path, put quotes around the command: "C:\My Path\My Command.cmd"

[simpleuser]

@Hand-E-Food first thing I tried. Didn't work. Got errors from powershell about missing files because it still split the quoted path into two parts. Reproduced error in a powershell window.

[simpleuser]

@Hand-E-Food screen capture at i.imgur.com/KNDuFyY.png showing that quotes do not fix the issue

[Hand-E-Food]

@user1663987, I see now. You need the -File switch. I've edited my answer to include this. Thanks!

[ranjeet]

This is awesome. I came here by searching for "hot key to move mouse pointer to known location". And if you are somewhat visually challenged -- which is likely if you are here -- and this does not work at first attempt note the two different spellings "CentreCursor.ps1" and "CenterCursor.ps1".

[tehDorf]

@MiserableVariable Thanks for pointing that out - I've reverted the file name for the first snippit back to the author's original naming so they both match now.

[Admin]

This is a good method except it seems to be slow(takes about 3 seconds for windows to run it). But doesn't require much else. I had to use elevate shortcut to prevent the windows security popup.

[Ramhound]

Before anyone says, "this does not work" you first have to understand "C:\Path To Script\CentreCursor.ps1" is just an example. If your path to the script, contains spaces, you must handle it correctly otherwise it won't work.