Mouse lag in video games since upgrading to Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-10-31T03:24:23+00:00

Since I’ve upgraded to Windows 8.1, when playing some games the mouse doesn’t behave right. It lags, or the pointer jumps back and forth, or I can’t click fast.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

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Anonymous
2013-10-31T03:29:40+00:00

Updated (11/8)

We want to thank our gaming community for the detailed feedback many of you have provided on these issues.  We have released some fixes and workarounds that will allow you to get back to your gaming.

The “mouse lag” issue is actually several different issues that could vary based on the game, input methods used, etc.

The three following issues are addressed by a fix we have provided in **KB 2908279**:

  1. Mouse jitters (jumps forward and back) as you move it through a game – This occurs in some games because Windows 8.1 introduced changes to mouse input processing for low latency interaction scenarios and this causes some games to respond differently to mouse input than in previous releases of Windows.
  2. Mouse movement is not to scale even after acceleration is turned off – If you have turned off acceleration to make the distance on the screen match the distance you move the mouse, that may not work correctly anymore.
  3. Measured mouse Polling Rate has a lower reporting frequency than expected – If you have a gaming mouse that has a high frequency, when you test it, you may find it is reporting a lower frequency than you expect. Note: if you previously encountered issues with measuring the polling rate you will need to follow the instructions in **KB 2908279** to ensure that, not only the patch is installed, but also the app used to measure the polling rate has an appropriate registry entry to enable the fix for that specific executable.

We have also included workarounds here for the following issues:

  1. Mouse may not be able to reach all areas of the game window – This may occur with games that do not use DirectX, when run in window mode. See **KB 2907016** for the workaround.
  2. Can’t left-click with an integrated pointing device immediately after pressing a key – This is a setting for touchpads, like those used on laptops, to make typing easier. You can work around this by changing the mouse delay to zero, but this may make typing more difficult. For instructions to change the setting, see **KB 2907018**.

Some users have also reported success in older games and apps by turning on compatibility mode. To try that:

  1. Right-click the game’s icon.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Select the Compatibility tab.
  4. Select the version of Windows for which you want to run the game in compatibility mode.
  5. If you want to apply the settings for that program to all accounts on the PC, click Change settings for all users. You might be asked for an administrator password or to confirm your choice.
  6. When you're done, tap click OK.

When we have more information from our investigations, we will update this post. Thank you very much for your patience.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-03T10:21:53+00:00

    This. I am still using windows 8 because i don't want to fiddle around in my registry. Microsoft should bring a so called "one-click" solution to this problem as many people, includin myself, are not confortable around messing with computer registry. I've done it sometimes, but i don't think i need to mess around in the registry to make my mouse work, as it works completely fine in windows 8.

    Please Microsoft, look more into this problem and make a patch that does not require any registry editing.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-02T23:27:23+00:00

    The answer is probably helpful to people who are more comfortable and knowledgeable about computers but for the novice, it was not helpful.  My mouse jumps all over the place no matter what program I'm in.  I didn't see an actual link to download the fix, if in fact it is the right one for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-28T09:59:25+00:00

    This could be a bug in windows 8.1.

    If you have written recovery discs when you had windows 8 then you could wipe your computer and then install the windows 8 discs.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-26T21:39:17+00:00

    well my computer is windows 8 but its been upgraded to windows 8.1 and Im having problems with my everything on the computer , I  would like to go back to windows 8 but I don`t know how to do that.

    please can someone help, I`m getting to the point of throwing my computer out of my window!!!!

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