[dropcap size=dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the most important and frustrating issues reported by the users of Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 8.1, is the mouse lag, (a jittery mouse pointer, or a freezing mouse) when running certain video games (the most commonly affected games include Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Half Life, Metro, Tomb Rider, etc.).
Although initially it was thought that mouse lag issues were caused by poor system configurations, it seems that no matter how much RAM your computer has and how advanced its processor is, the problems with the games listed above (and others) persists. Also, in certain video games the cursor appears to be much higher or much lower than its normal size, a problem that affects the overall user experience.
Fortunately it was found that the reasons why these errors appear during gameplay in Windows 8.1 are the results of some modifications made by Microsoft on the way the system processes the mouse input and the bitmap scaling for certain desktop applications. These modifications are causing the mouse to behave strangely while playing some of the video games titles mentioned above. However, we are fortunate again, as the problem is quite easy to solve.
Therefore, how can we get rid of the mouse lag/cursor freeze when running certain games in Windows 8.1?
If you encounter problems that are similar to those mentioned above, the solution is to disable the display scaling option and run the game in compatibility mode with earlier versions of Windows.
- If such a problem appears during a specific video game, exit to desktop. Right-click on the game shortcut and select Properties (if that game was launched via the Start Screen tile, right click on that tile and select Open file location. Then, right click on the shortcut icon and select Properties).
- Within the Properties windows, select the Compatibility TAB. Here, you have to enable the following two options: “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings” and “Run this program as an administrator” (We also recommend you to enable the Compatibility Mode and select Windows 8 or even Windows 7 from the menu if the problem still persists.
- Click Apply and OK. Now, the mouse lag problem should be resolved.
If you do not want to repeat the steps described above for each game, we recommend that you install the fix (KB2908279) distributed by Microsoft in order to fix the errors.
Download Game Hotfix for Windows 8.1 (32-bit).
Download Game Hotfix for Windows 8.1(64-bit).