The Numpad Mouse Emulation
Windows 10 includes a robust suite of accessibility tools designed to make the operating system usable for everyone. One of these tools is “Mouse Keys.” When enabled, this feature allows you to completely control your on-screen mouse pointer using the numeric keypad on the right side of a full-sized keyboard (e.g., pressing ‘8’ moves the cursor up, ‘2’ moves it down, and ‘5’ clicks). This is an absolute lifesaver if your physical mouse suddenly breaks or if you have motor control difficulties that make a standard mouse challenging to use.
However, if you type numbers frequently—perhaps you do heavy data entry in Excel, or you play video games that use the numpad for keybinds—accidentally triggering Mouse Keys can be incredibly disruptive. By default, Windows has a shortcut that automatically enables this feature if you press Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock. If you accidentally hit this combination, your numpad will instantly stop typing numbers and start slowly crawling your cursor across the screen. If you have a working mouse and need your numpad strictly for data entry, you should disable this feature and its associated shortcut.
How to Turn Off Mouse Keys
You can completely disable the Mouse Keys feature and its keyboard shortcut via the Ease of Access settings.
- Click the Start button and select the Settings gear icon (or press
Win + I). - In the Settings menu, click on Ease of Access (or Accessibility).
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar until you find the “Interaction” section, then click on Mouse.
- At the top of the right-hand pane, look for the toggle switch labelled Control your mouse with a keypad.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
- To prevent the feature from turning itself back on accidentally, look immediately below the toggle and uncheck the box that says Turn on Mouse Keys to use the shortcut.
From now on, pressing the Num Lock shortcut will do nothing, and your numeric keypad will exclusively function as a number pad.