Two mouse pointers in Word

Question

For about two months now, some computers at my work place have issues with double mouse pointers but only in Microsoft Word. The two pointers appear and move together, but only one can be used to click things and mark text.

This is happening on PC, no touch function is being used, also no wireless mice.

I have tried to plug them in different USB ports, same issue. I have checked all mouse settings, pointer trail is OFF. I even reinstalled my office programs.

What could be the cause of this?

Answer 1

The problem could be the result of an add-in that's installed on the affected PCs. One way to check this is to start Word while holding down the Ctrl key, and click the Yes button in the message box that asks whether to start Word in safe mode. When Word starts in safe mode, it's prevented from loading add-ins, the Normal.dotm template, and any custom settings that are stored in the registry.

If the extra mouse pointer doesn't appear while in safe mode, the next step is to shut down Word and start Windows File Explorer. Type or copy/paste this path into the address box:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

Press the Enter key at the end of that line. Windows will expand the %APPDATA% environment variable to the location of the profile of the currently logged-in user, and the rest of the address will bring you to the location where Word template add-ins are stored. If there are any *.dotm files there, rename them to change the file extension from .dotm to .bad to prevent them from being loaded by Word. Restart Word to check whether the extra mouse pointer is gone.

If that worked, start renaming the template files one at a time back to .dotm and restarting Word. If one of them causes the extra pointer to return, that one is the cause of the problem. You can try deleting that template and restoring a good copy from the original source (assuming the problem is due to some damage to the file), or contact the developer of the add-in for a fix.

Caveat: Word may also have COM add-ins that aren't found in the STARTUP folder. You can see what Word loads by clicking the COM Add-ins button on the Developer tab of Word (which you may have to enable in the Options > Customize Ribbon dialog). If you've checked all the template add-ins without finding the cause of the extra pointer, you can try updating or uninstalling the packages that included the COM add-ins.

Answer 2

Dear @Katja Krecenbaher Mernik,

Thank you very much for taking the time to describe the issue in such detail and for letting me know everything you have already tried. I truly appreciate your efforts, as this information is extremely helpful in understanding the situation and avoiding unnecessary repeated troubleshooting.

Based on what you have described, this behavior appears to be a display or rendering issue specific to Microsoft Word rather than a mouse or general Windows input problem. The fact that the duplicate cursor only appears in Word, that both pointers move together, and that only one of them is actually interactive strongly suggests that Word is incorrectly rendering an additional internal cursor.

Since you mentioned that this behavior affects multiple computers in your workplace, this is unlikely to be an isolated configuration issue on a single machine. Instead, it points to a broader issue that may be related to the Word build, graphics rendering path, or the way Word is interacting with system graphics drivers in your environment. Investigating this properly requires access to backend diagnostics and tooling that are not available at the end‑user level.

For this reason, I’m afraid this is not something that can be fully resolved through further local troubleshooting alone. To avoid taking more of your time and effort without clear progress, the best next step would be to contact your IT administrator and explain that the issue is affecting multiple devices and is limited to Microsoft Word. They can then open a support ticket with Microsoft on your behalf. This will allow the issue to be investigated by the appropriate backend teams, who have the necessary tools to analyze logs, rendering behavior, and version‑specific issues.

Your admin can raise support ticket from Microsoft 365 Admin Center>Support>Help & Support.  

For reference:  Get support | Microsoft Docs   

Please be assured that this is not caused by anything you are doing incorrectly, nor does it indicate a hardware fault with your mouse. If you need help summarizing the issue for your IT team or providing the right technical context for the support ticket, feel free to let me know and I’ll be happy to assist further.
If my response has helped you better understand the situation and guided you toward a possible next step, please consider marking it as the “Accepted answer.” Doing so will pin the thread to the top, making it easier for others to discover your question and see the pioneering effort you have made in raising this issue. It also helps users searching with related keywords find the discussion more quickly and benefit from the insights shared. 

Warm regards, 

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