How to lock your mouse to one monitor while gaming
You flick the mouse in a borderless game and the cursor slides onto your other monitor. One click there and the game loses focus. Locking the mouse to the game's monitor while you play stops it, as long as it lets go again when you want to leave.
How to keep the mouse on the game's monitor
Keep the mouse on this screen is an option of Second Screen Gaming's Run borderless on a chosen screen. While the game is the window in front, the cursor cannot leave the game's monitor.
The mouse is free again the moment the game stops being in front: press Alt+Tab or the Windows key, or minimize the game. It is held again when you return. Games that lock the cursor more tightly themselves, to their own window or to a crosshair, keep their own lock. If Windows drops the lock, after a display change or a security prompt, it is put back.
Why the cursor moves to your second monitor
In exclusive fullscreen the game owns the display, and the cursor rarely escapes it. Borderless and windowed games are ordinary windows on a desktop that spans every screen, so unless the game confines the cursor itself, and many only do while you are aiming, nothing stops it crossing to the other monitor.
How to lock the mouse to one screen by hand
Few games offer a confine option, and the other workarounds cost you something elsewhere:
- Look for "Confine mouse", "Lock cursor to window" or similar in the game's display or controls settings.
- Rearrange your displays so the screens only touch along a short stretch of edge. In Settings, System, Display, drag the second monitor so it meets the game's screen near a corner, and the cursor can only cross there. Moving between screens gets awkward for everything else.
- Exclusive fullscreen usually keeps the cursor in, at the cost of the game minimizing whenever you click away.
Common questions
Does the mouse lock work without borderless mode?
No. It comes with Run borderless on a chosen screen, because it holds the cursor on the screen the game was fitted to.
How do I get the mouse out if something goes wrong?
Press the Windows key or Alt+Tab. Ctrl+Alt+Delete frees it too, and closing the tray agent removes the lock completely.