Multiple mouse cursors on a Windows Desktop

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Job Vermeulen (admin)

Ever thought of two mouse cursors at the same time? After googling I found a SDK from Microsoft, to make multi mouse available WITHIN your own application. I was wondering if this can be done system width.

The answer is YES!

There’s an open source project named CPNMouse (kinda outdated, last update was in 2004) but it works!

Download the custom driver (make sure you have the binary) from this website.

Select your mouse in device manager, and update the driver to the downloaded on. Instructions

If windows tells you there is no supported hardware in this driver follow these instructions (easy to fix!):

Windows 2000/XP/2003
  1. Open Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. If this is not available on your computer, you may also be able to use BusHound to obtain the information.
  2. In this program select Components -> Input -> Pointing Devices
  3. The information in under PNP Device Id is what you need. It is in the form USB\VID_XXXX&PID_YYYY\<something>
  4. You need the numbers XXXX and YYYY
  5. You must add a line to cpnmouse.inf. The line is “%CPNGroup.DeviceDesc1% = usbinst, HID\VID_XXXX&PID_YYYY“, where XXXX and YYYY are the numbers found earlier. You should add the line just after the other lines looking just like it
  6. If you send the numbers to me, I will add them to the distribution

After you successfully installed this driver (on both mouses!) download and run the ordinary-binary application. This starts two mouse pointers witch can move separated.

It works, but the scroll function is lost (after the application is starts, not by installing the driver).

Try it yourself ;-)

PS: It’s working on Windows XP SP3

Extra link:

Funny little multi mouse game:

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

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  • johnny

    Thanks for good post

  • P-entertainment

    How do you make it work in SP3? I’m having some trouble as it is not showing the “CPN mouse filter” or whatever they named it..

  • http://timuralhimenkov.ru/2009/01/chto-takoe-marketing Your Reader

    Good work! Thank you!
    I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
    Of course, I will add backlink?

    Sincerely, Timur I. Alhimenkov

  • http://maxitjob.com admin

    @P-entertainment:
    You have to select the driver manualy in your device manager.

    Where do you face the problem?

  • samba7

    hey, tnx for the info but its not working for me…..i replace the HID\VID_XXXX&PID_YYYY with the correct numbers and still says windows cant find better driver for this mouse….any ideas?

  • http://maxitjob.com admin

    What mouse do you use? And what are the VID and PID?

  • Bharat

    Sir,

    i am trying to do the same in Vista and it’s not working.Problem is that after doing those XX YY changes I still can’t see CPN in my driver’s list.

  • admin

    You have to select “Browse” and then select the inf file.

  • Mark Crown

    Anybody checked http://www.multimouse.com

    Seems to be an interesting software for multiple mice.

  • lada

    Hi nice work but:

    1/ it doesnt working on dual monitor, cursor stop on 1st monitor border and 2nd monitor unaccesible

    2/ after stopping ordinary app some cursor left on monitor

    3/ there is my HIDs you can add them is for A4tech mouses
    %CPNGroup.DeviceDesc1% = usbinst, HID\VID_09DA&PID_8090
    %CPNGroup.DeviceDesc1% = usbinst, HID\VID_09DA&PID_000E

    4/ please write to manual that is IMPORTAT change *.inf file before copy them to /inf maybe is better to choose them from folder without copying them to sys folders

    but GOOD WORK thx

  • http://www.ComputerHotShot.com RayInAZ

    Hi very close, but no cigar:
    1. I was able to get the app to work on multiple monitors by setting them up as one huge horizontal display. Both mice worked independently (there was some display skipping with stuff being left on the displays), but not too bad.
    2. The multiple monitor display worked, but not good enough for me to leave the monitors configured as a single horizontal display. If the monitors were the same resolution/size it might have been workable.
    3. My HIDs one is a Logitech the other a Dell
    %CPNGroup.DeviceDesc1% = usbinst, HID\VID_046D&PID_C03F
    %CPNGroup.DeviceDesc1% = usbinst, HID\VID_0518&PID_0001

    4. I was able to make changes to the file in the windows inf directory without issue.

    I am surprised there isn’t something more recent in this area, or even Microsoft support in the OS.

  • http://www.aboutus.org/BOSS_ResurfacingBossResurfacing Boss Resurfacing

    Off topic – Help with PM?
    lost password
    Boss Resurfacing
    Boss Resurfacing

  • BigBoys

    Hi, for some reason there isnt an extra mouse cursor, only if i move either the one moves around :P lol – please help

  • http://registry-repair-program-reviews.com Jan Carmena

    Most of the time I don

  • http://community.bsu.edu/members/Online_Stock_Trading.asp online stock trading guru

    Hey, I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog!…..I”ll be checking in on a regularly now….Keep up the good work! :)

    I’m Out! :)

  • Daniel

    I’m having trouble with it on windows 7 ultimate. I’ve installed the drivers for my usb mouse, and my ps/2 mouse. I launch the program and there are two cursors on the screen. each mouse will move a cursor, but erratic mouse movement occurs and I cannot use the mice properly. (eg. i move the mouse and it starts moving in the general direction, then i stop moving it and it moves wherever it wants for a while without input.) extremely annoying…

  • LarryX

    IMHO.. teamplayer better…
    http://www.wunderworks.com/teamplayer/

  • http://maxitjob.com admin

    People please dont forget, I didn’t write this software. I will and cannot support you with this.

    It just a nice piece of software I wanted to tell you about.

  • KGB

    Thank you for your info, it is very useful.

    However, I have some question related:

    Has anyone tested this on windows 7 apart from Daniel?
    It was succesful?
    Daniel, did you fix your problems with the pointers?

    Thank you in advance for your help

  • danial

    great stuff
    little tricky to configure
    thanks

  • rajesh

    i need the source code for two applications on one system .

  • Left Gangster

    @”KGB says:
    March 9, 2010 at 6:31 pm

    Thank you for your info, it is very useful.

    However, I have some question related:

    Has anyone tested this on windows 7 apart from Daniel?
    It was succesful?
    Daniel, did you fix your problems with the pointers?

    Thank you in advance for your help”

    Yes I tested it on Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit although I copied the *.inf and *.sys files in system32 folder and then from driver installation I selected the inf file.
    It is laggy and when I move one mouse and then stop, it keeps on moving somewhere. Also after 2 minutes the api just crashes.

    Anyway hope there will be fixes and it is very nice as an idea of having 2 mice or more.

  • Matt

    This is open source. I don’t think it’s useless. Someone should pick it up. I work on OSX now, so I don’t know if it will prove useful to me, if so, I’ll take a look.

    I’m mostly concentrating on a solution for multitouch (low cost) for OSX, for which there are no drivers (like the HP 21″ display).

  • Xaggoth

    I am experiencing a problem while using CPN Mouse. I am using a USB logitech mouse and an old ps/2 mouse, the latter of which is being used as my secondary mouse. I have successfully installed the CPN driver for the ps/2 mouse but remain unable to move both mice move independently of one another. Two cursors appear on screen, but when the ps/2 mouse cursor moves the USB cursor is dragged along with it. Please help.

  • FAM

    Hi,

    I can not download driver , API , … of CPNMouse from http://cpnmouse.sourceforge.net/install.html

    please help me !

    Thx

  • http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16421561# Multiple Monitor/Keyboard/Mice accessing one desktop? by Glytch – TribalWar Forums

    [...] : Multiple Mice in Windows apparently works on XP / 2K. Some instructions at Multiple mouse cursors on a Windows Desktop | My Daily Computer Solutions can't find anything for Vista / 7, but it probably exists somewhere… [...]

  • amr

    microsoft is locking only one active application or window at a time ,
    so you cant do saving to use today speed computers as one computer for multiple users through multiple monitors .

    thanks

    this needs immediate solution from microsoft

  • Hotmil

    thx

  • Brian Jones
  • Jayheats

    i got stopped when it asked for the Arhus installation disk?

  • Raalou

    I’m pretty sure there is no support for win7 64 bit. for CPN mouse that is.