Skip to main content

How to unlock a mouse (and why you might need to)

how to unlock mouse mousefreeze01
Sergey Zolkin / Unsplash

If your mouse or touchpad has frozen on your PC or laptop, there are a few different ways you can unlock it. It might be that the mouse has gone to sleep and a couple of key presses will get it working. Alternatively, a reboot fixes most issues like this, but if it's more complicated, we can help walk you through that too.

Here's how to unlock your mouse if it stops working.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

15 minutes

What You Need

  • A spare mouse (optional)

If you have a spare mouse on hand, plugging it in so that you can use the mouse with these troubleshooting steps will make the process a lot easier for you. If you can't, you can use the Tab key and arrow keys on your keyboard to move between menus and options.

Frozen PC or laptop? Time to reboot

Before you start trying to unlock your mouse, it's worth checking whether your whole PC has frozen or not. A good test for this is to hit the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys on your keyboard. If their indicator lights light up, then your PC is still operational — it's possibly just the mouse that's frozen.

However, if those lights don't light up and if the laptop seems otherwise unresponsive, then you can try force-quitting whatever app you're in. If that doesn't work, though, it's time to reboot it. Press the restart button if you have one, or press and hold the power button until the PC shuts down. Then boot it up again and see if the mouse is working properly again. If not, try some of the fixes below.

If you think your laptop is the problem and it's still not right, here's our guide to the most common Windows problems and how to fix them.

How to unlock your mouse

If you're pretty sure that it's the mouse that's the problem, then we need to address that specifically. It's not always obvious what the root cause of this issue is, but try these fixes in order and see if one of them unlocks your mouse for you.

Step 1: It's possible that somehow the touchpad has become disabled. Most laptops have a specialized key for turning the touchpad on and off. Look for an icon that looks like a touchpad with a stop sign or cross through it. You may have to press the "FN" function key as well.

Try pressing that key to see if it re-enables your touchpad and unlocks your mouse.

You can also try double tapping the touchpad. Some manufacturers use that as a touchpad lock shortcut. Double tapping may unlock it again.

Step 2: If you're using a standalone, external mouse, it may be that you just need to reconnect it. If it's a wired mouse, unplug it and plug it back in again. Also try a different USB port on your laptop or PC.

For wireless mice, try turning the mouse off and on again. Then, if needed, try repairing the mouse with your device.

With wireless mice, it's always good to check that the mouse has battery, too. That might mean plugging it in to charge or replacing the internal batteries. Alternatively, you can just plug it in and try running it as a wired mouse temporarily.

The USB-C port on the Corsair M75 Air wireless gaming mouse.
Kunal Khullar / Digital Trends

Step 3: You can also try reinstalling your mouse and touchpad drivers. Search for "Device Manager" in Windows search, and select the corresponding result.

Look through the list of devices for "Human interface devices." Select the arrow to open that up and look for your mouse or touchpad.

If you can, double-click your touchpad or mouse, or if using the keyboard, select it and press Enter. Select the Driver tab at the top of the new windows, and select Update, then follow the on-screen instructions. If there are no new drivers to update to, select Uninstall device then reboot your laptop, and the drivers should be reinstalled automatically for you.

If your standalone mouse that's frozen has its own set of drivers, you can download the latest version from the manufacturer's website.

Step 4: Did you try cleaning your touchpad or mouse? If there's a lot of gunk on the touchpad, it may not be detecting your fingers — or it may be detecting the gunk as well and getting confused. Either way, shut down the laptop and wipe down the touchpad with a lint-free cloth dampened with some distilled water.

If you're using a standalone mouse, you can try a similar trick on the underside sensor. Also try using it on a different mousing surface, too.

Step 5: If all else fails, roll back to a system restore point when the mouse was working to see if that fixes the issue.

Fed up and just want to get a new mouse and get your PC working again? We hear you. Here are some of our favorites.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
Rest in pieces: Nvidia is finally ditching GeForce Experience for good
The Nvidia app on the Windows desktop.

We've had the Nvidia app for a while, but now, it's available officially. About a year ago, Nvidia launched the Nvidia app into beta as a one-stop-shop for managing some of its best graphics cards, including grabbing new drivers, messing around with different features, and optimizing your game settings. Now, it's out of beta, officially replacing the legacy GeForce Experience and Nvidia Control Panel apps, and with some new features in tow.

One of the biggest draws of the Nvidia app initially was driver downloads. It may seem mundane, but you'd previously need to download GeForce Experience and create an Nvidia account for GPU driver updates. If you didn't, you'd have to search and install your drivers manually. The Nvidia app gives you access to new drivers, and notifies you when they're ready, all without an Nvidia login. Now, signing in is optional for "bundles and rewards" offered by Nvidia.

Read more
Microsoft is, once again, trying to force users into using Edge
Microsoft Edge on a laptop on a couch.

Microsoft has deployed no shortage of tactics to get Windows users onto its Edge browser, and although some of the more nefarious methods of trying to force users to pick up the browser have failed, the company is still experimenting with new methods. The latest route launches Edge automatically on your PC on startup and prompts users to continually import data from Chrome, including your history, bookmarks, and tabs.

Richard Lawler from The Verge spotted the prompt, which showed up earlier this year without explanation before disappearing. It's back now, and in an official capacity from Microsoft. "This is a notification giving people the choice to import data from other browsers," said Microsoft's Caitlin Roulston in a statement to The Verge.

Read more
M4 chip: here’s everything we know about Apple’s latest silicon
The Apple M4 series chips, including the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max against a black background.

With the launch of the latest iMac, the redesigned Mac mini and the souped-up MacBook Pro, Apple has just unveiled new Macs equipped with its latest M4 chip, which brings more powerful performance and extra features to its computers. But this won't be the first time the M4 has made an appearance -- it's already out in the latest iPad Pro.

Is the M4 chip any good? Should you upgrade your Mac or iPad to take advantage of it? And what new features does it bring to your devices? We've set out to answer these questions and more, blending together what we've learned from the M4 Macs and the iPad Pro with information sourced in our own reviews. That should give you everything you need to know about Apple's latest chip.
Price and release date

Read more