Having difficulty finding the mouse pointer on your Windows Vista desktop? Or, perhaps you are using a laptop with the brightness set to low, making the pointer difficult to see.

You can enable a feature called "Pointer Trails" that displays multiple copies of your mouse pointer onscreen as it is moved. This should make your mouse pointer stand out more from the rest of your desktop items, and thus easier to find.

To toggle this feature:

1. Open the Windows Vista "Mouse Properties" dialog box.

2. Click the "Pointer Options" tab.

3. Underneath "Visibility", check or uncheck "Display pointer trails" as desired.

4. If you enabled mouse pointer trails, you can configure the length of the trails. Underneath the checkbox, click and hold the slider thumb and move it to the left to shorten the length of the trails. Moving the thumb to the right will increase the trail size.

5. When done, click "OK" to close the "Mouse Properties" dialog box.

For another way to easily spot the mouse pointer, learn how to find the pointer easily with a keypress.

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