Mac OS X: Increase mouse speed on login screen

Question

I have an iMac 27" and it takes so much time to move the mouse pointer from the upper left corner to the center of the screen to click my account entry on the login screen.

Isn't there a way to increase the mouse speed on the login screen?

(Also, I think I'll file a bug or suggestion for Apple to start Mac OS X with the mouse cursor centered rather than in the upper left corner.)

Solution 1

I'm fairly certain that you're not going to be able to do this without some sort of third party software. There are a few tweaks that can be made to the loginwindow app which is running before login, but modifying the mouse speed isn't one of them.

You might try USB Overdrive which says it's a device driver in addition to a preference pane. The speed setting you set in it may affect the device driver prior to login.

The other thing you could try is playing with this code or this code to create a daemon that could be run at boot time which would modify the mouse speed.

Good luck!

Solution 2

I tried Jon Grant's answer and didn't work for me.

One possible workaround is this:

Since Tab doesn't focus on your user, what you can do instead is hitting your user's first letter. That will focus on it, so then you can just hit Enter and then you are able to type your password. Even better than using the mouse

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice it was 6 years old. I just noticed this with El Capitan 10.11.5

Solution 3

Well, this isn't a complete solution, but maybe someone can expand on it...

The Terminal command you want is:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 3.0

(or some higher number for faster)

I don't know what user's defaults I need to change (via su/sudo) for the login screen though.

Comments

[drAlberT]

I'm against your issue on the position of the pointer, having it centered makes it simpler to trace it than having it in a corner... think about moving the mouse in the opposite direction of the screen center, you'll not be able to find the pointe you are looking for! +1 for the general question instead.

[Arjan]

As a workaround: maybe type the first letters of the name you want to use, to select it? Or press arrow-down to get to the name you want. (@AlberT, reading your comment makes me think both you and Marc want the mouse pointer centered...?)

[Marc]

@Arjan van Bentem: Thanks for the workaround, I didn't know about this. @AlberT: I'm also not sure to understand your comment correctly. Do you agree to start the mouse in the center would be good or not?

[Arjan]

Aren't you talking about the fast user switching login? Clicking that icon in the menu bar would explain why your mouse cursor is in the top-right corner. When you want a menu shortcut to invoke that login screen then see superuser.com/questions/45740/fast-user-switching-apple-menu‌​/…

[drAlberT]

@everyone I'm happy having the pointer centered :)

[Marc]

Wow thanks for the links. If I have the time I will certainly start writing a daemon, I didn't do this since 3 years or so :-)

[Marc]

I'm waiting to accept you as a solution in case somebody comes up with something like 'defaults write com.apple.login fastmouse yes' :-)

[Iulian Onofrei]

So, @Marc, this looks like the answer you wanted. Did you try it out?

[Marc]

Don't worry. It's 6 years old but I still have the same problem just like you :-) Indeed within this 6 years I now took the habit of pressing the first letter of the user. Then you can use cursor keys to select the user, hit Enter and type the password.

[Marc]

BTW isn't it astonishing that my iMac 27" from late 2009 is still my main machine and working just fine with the latest OS X after an upgrade from HDD to SSD? And that I can even install macOS Sierre later this year?

[Marc]

@Iulian Onofrei: As Jon wrote, this command is for the current user, not for the login screen. Seems like Miliv tested it and it indeed doesn't work. For now the best answer is indeed the one from Miliv, which is using the keyboard instead of the mouse...