Text cursor indicator feature leaves a permanent purple visual artifact artifact floating over apps

Micheal Brown 45 Reputation points
2026-06-03T14:37:07.6966667+00:00

Hi all, I enabled the "Text Cursor Indicator" feature under Accessibility settings, which adds colored bubbles to either side of the blinking text line so it's easier to track. Now, a random purple indicator bubble has gotten permanently glitched on my screen, staying on top of my games, movies, and browsers even when I am not typing anything.

Windows for business | Windows 365 Business
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  1. VPHAN 44,700 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-06-20T05:05:47.9+00:00

    Hi Micheal Brown,

    Has your issue been resolved yet? If it has, please consider accepting the answer as it helps others sharing the same problem benefit too. Thank you :)

    VPHAN

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  2. VPHAN 44,700 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-06-03T15:10:06.7633333+00:00

    Hello Micheal Brown,

    That is a graphical glitch caused by a hung user-mode state machine within the Windows shell process (explorer.exe).

    To resolve this, you can take two technical steps below:

    1/ Navigate to the registry path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Cursors and set the IndicatorOnOff DWORD value to 0 to completely suppress the indicator engine.

    2/ Open Task Manager using Ctrl + Shift + Esc, locate explorer.exe (Windows Explorer), right-click it, and select Restart.

    Hope this answer has brought you some useful information. If it did, please hit “accept answer”. Should you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

    VPHAN

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  3. AI answer

    2026-06-03T14:37:26.45+00:00

    Disable and reconfigure the Text cursor indicator to clear the stuck purple bubble:

    1. Open Accessibility settings:
      • Press Windows logo key + U, or
      • Select Start > Settings > Accessibility (Windows 11) or Start > Settings > Ease of Access (Windows 10).
    2. Open the text cursor settings:
      • Windows 11: Select Text cursor.
      • Windows 10: Select Text cursor under Ease of Access.
    3. Turn off the indicator:
      • Toggle Text cursor indicator (Windows 11) or Turn on text cursor indicator (Windows 10) off.
      • This removes the colored indicator bubbles, which should also clear any visual artifact.
    4. If the artifact disappears and the feature is still needed, turn the indicator back on and adjust:
      • Size/Text cursor indicator size slider to a comfortable level.
      • Text cursor indicator color to a different color if desired.

    If the artifact persists even with the indicator turned off, use the same settings page to confirm all text cursor options are disabled, then sign out and back in or restart Windows so the accessibility visuals are fully reset.

    For additional cursor visibility options (such as changing thickness instead of using the indicator), use the Text cursor thickness slider on the same page.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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