Cursorcerer: Hide Your Cursor at Will - Doomlaser

Cursorcerer: Hide Your Cursor at Will

Cursorcerer is a little tool I hacked together which allows you to hide the Mac’s cursor at any time by use of a global hotkey. It can also autohide an idle cursor and bring it back as soon as you move the mouse.

The inspiration for this tool is one of my favorite and most utilized macOS features: the control-scrollwheel zoom trick. I use it all the time to make things like embedded web videos full screen. The trick’s only major downfall is that it’s a constant battle to get the cursor out of the way.

Cursorcerer Screenshot

To install, just double click on the prefpane. Hit control-option-k to zap and unzap the cursor. If you want to uninstall, go to ~/Library/PreferencePanes/ and trash Cursorcerer.

The technique behind this global cursor hiding hack originates in a useful post to the Apple carbon-dev mailing list from Red Sweater’s Daniel Jalkut.

Cursorcerer 3.5 is signed, notarized, and works in macOS Sonoma, Ventura, and Monterey—and now natively supports Apple silicon Macs as well as Intel-based Macs.

Update: Cursorcerer has been updated to a 64-bit version that runs smoothly in the latest versions of macOS. The minimum idle hiding threshold has also been lowered at the request of some users. Legacy users can grab the 32-bit version here, or 2.0 here.

Download Cursorcerer 3.5


If you use Cursorcerer, please consider supporting it with a PayPal donation, or say hi on Twitter.



104 Responses to “Cursorcerer: Hide Your Cursor at Will”

  1. Mo7 Says:

    Thank you so much! Worked like a charm with Sonoma 14.4.1 & M1 Pro. Finally a fix for Goodnotes with Wacom.

  2. Nick Says:

    What a great little utility. I bow down to you good Sir!

  3. mark Says:

    I think AutoHideMouseCursor is the Windows equivalent. Good luck on the Windows side!

  4. GL Says:

    I love using Cursorcerer on my mac but my employer made us switch to PC. Any chance this app would be available on Windows?

  5. Luis Says:

    Awesome tool, super easy to set up and works just great. Thanks a bunch!!

  6. Chris Says:

    Great work, this app rules.

  7. Tyler Says:

    I virtually never give money for free mini projects like this, but you’ve earned it. Still updating an app you hacked together over a decade ago? And it works flawlessly and immediately with virtually no setup? Amazing, bravo

  8. lev khaykin Says:

    Hey, I just want to thank you for this little but amazing app. I’m a hobby programmer myself. When my financial status gets better I’m going to donate. Within 2 years for sure. Thank you again for your support and work mate. PS: I have just bought the MacBook Air m1 and am very satisfied with it. And this little program is just what I need. Bye

  9. papes Says:

    been using for years. always been amazing, and so convenient to have the cursor just disappear and i don’t have to think about it. for whatever reason it wasn’t working, so i came here to re-download it (it’s working perfectly now), and i ended up donating to the paypal to show my support. to the creator, thank you for fixing a problem so simply, and making it so accessible, and i think you are a kind person.

  10. JJ Says:

    It’s amazing to see you as an individual developer updating your app 14 years after release. Truly astonishing.

  11. mark Says:

    The M1 version is done. Just download the latest version 🙂

  12. John Says:

    Thank you very much for this app!
    Will it work for the new M1 processor?

  13. Awais Says:

    This is my go to cursor hiding app for when I’m recording anything.

  14. Lai Yu-Hsuan Says:

    Just what I need. Thank you very much!

  15. Tom Says:

    works like a charm, very useful tool to replace a big absence

  16. Cursorcerer Mac – Masquer le Pointeur de la Souris (gratuit) – UniverSmartphone Says:

    […] La dernière version du logiciel Cursorcerer pour macOS 10.11 et plus est à télécharger gratuitement sur sa page dédiée par ici. […]

  17. Fabio Says:

    Perfect! I needed “something” that hid the cursor to create a handwriting animation with Photoshop, Quicktime and the Wacom tablet and this solution is for me. Thank you.

  18. Marriott Library - Apple ITS | Managing Mac Kiosks Says:

    […] option on Mac systems is using Cursorcerer Preference Pane which allows you to which allows you to hide the cursor at any time by use of a […]

  19. Olivier Says:

    Thanks for updating this neat utility for 64bit!

  20. Jason Says:

    So happy i found this and it still works. I am not using the latest OSX but I hope you’ll keep this one around for the 64-bit era.

  21. Laura R Says:

    For some reason my mouse stopped disappearing on my mac and it irritated me so much! It used to do it so it was so annoying when it wouldn’t go away. this downloaded p quickly and i just set the keyboard shortcut and it works like a dream. Thanks!

  22. macOS: Den Mauszeiger automatisch ausblenden lassen Says:

    […] störendes Element wahrnimmt. Ihr gehört zu eben jener Nutzergruppe? Dann könnten die beiden Apps Cursorcerer oder Mouse Hider einen Blick wert […]

  23. Connor Dabron Says:

    Works great! Exactly what I was looking for, needed it for a program that accepts mouse input control, but the program doesn’t hide the cursor, so this was just what I needed to do that. Now I won’t be distracted by cursor movement again! Yay 🙂

  24. MIK Says:

    Awesome! Just what i was looking for! Works like a charm on MacOS X El Capitain 10.11.6, working with a Cintiq 27hdq (2017)

  25. Car Smith Says:

    Works perfectly on macOS Sierra (10.12.1).

  26. Matt Says:

    Cheers me dears! Just the job! Thank you

  27. Mohammad Almtab Says:

    Works great on El Capitan!
    I don’t use it for videos, I use it to focus on reading PDFs in Preview.
    Can you develop a CMD+OPTION+CONTROL shortcut? (“MouseHider” has it)

  28. sean2078 Says:

    You’re the best man – Thanks a LOT and thank goodness it works great in El Capitan .. much apprec!

  29. Bernie D Says:

    Funny, I had an old version lying around. Stumbled on it today and ok I’ll download and try the latest version instead (2.0). But it didn’t work (crash on launch pref pane). So I tried the older version I have (file dates may 2014) and it worked. I have OSX 10.8.5. Anyway. seems like a nice solution. I magnify the cursor because my vision sucks (after a TBI) and often I search the screen to find the default cursor, which is waaay too small and unnoticeable. But then oftentimes it just hide important info (button text, popup helps, etc. Hence this seems like a good usability improvement for those cases. Thanks!

  30. Stacy Elko Says:

    I’ve been trying to screen capture a Unity game animation, and of course the cursor is in the middle. This should work nicely. Thank you

  31. Phil Says:

    Great little tool. Thanks!

  32. Jamez Says:

    This little tool solved the annoying Photoshop problem where minimizing the Brush Tool over a certain point makes crosshair appear. Thank you so much for this!

  33. Evan Bond Says:

    Hello this does not seem to work in Photoshop CC 2014. OSX Yosemite. I have set a few different keystrokes in the pref pane and the cursor is still visible regardless of how I set my cursor prefs within Photoshop. Ami Doing something silly?

  34. Andres Says:

    I used it to hide the on a Touch Screen installed on a Mac Mini. Awesome, and free! 🙂 Thank you!

  35. Jonathon Lewys Says:

    Thanks. Perfect for getting an enlarged mouse pointer out of the way so you can see the help text underneath. Using Yosemite.

  36. danR Says:

    Not working. Crashes prefs-pane when I click on it. Tried rebooting, still crashes. Mountain Lion.

  37. Rokdun Says:

    Thanks so much! Now I can view Netflix without the cursor, at last! 🙂

  38. Donald Smith Says:

    WOW!!! thanks much..perfect!!!
    as for not being active at reboot…
    a little applescript in the startup folder..works a charm!!!

    tell application “System Preferences”
    activate
    set current pane to pane “Cursorcerer”
    end tell

  39. Vadim Says:

    Brian Y +1

    Update please!!!

  40. James Says:

    This is excellent! I was using WINE to run an old game, but the game would show a cursor over the HUD, so you couldn’t aim well. This let me hide it and get some nostalgia flowing! Thanks!

  41. Tom Says:

    Thanks man,

    This is perfect for iTunes 10 visualiser.

    Cheers

  42. poop Says:

    DOESNT HIDE ON DOCK!!! :'(

  43. Brian Y Says:

    Thanks for creating this! I’m using it but I’m running into reliability issues on OS 10.9. I created an automator app that launches Cursorcerer.app, pauses a few seconds, then simulates the Command+Option+K key presses to hide the cursor. The automatic timeout does not work unless I go into the preference pane and move the slider.

    It’s been many years since there was an update (maybe there was only the initial release). Would you mind releasing the source and posting it on Github? It would be great if someone could update this app for the newer versions of Mac OS and maybe add in some command line access so it can be scripted.

  44. Ian Says:

    Absolutely great! 64 bit would be so amazing!!!

  45. Richard Glaser Says:

    Doesn’t look like it has worked since OS X 10.8.3 like Mavericks, etc. Any plans on upgraded or supporting it for newer OS’s?

  46. Jack Says:

    Hey, LOVE THE PROGRAM!!! but is it possible to make it so the cursor is just barely visible? like a TINY dot on the screen or maybe transparent?

  47. Damien Says:

    This is perfect. Simple and elegant. Thanks heaps.

  48. Sinna Max Says:

    Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much!

  49. Chester Says:

    Hi! This program is a life-saver for presentations. Thanks!

  50. Jeff Perren Says:

    Perfect. Thank you.

    Jeff

  51. Nelson Says:

    This is what I wanted.
    It’s like, I imagined that soft, and you did it;

    Thanks.

  52. Richard Glaser Says:

    Does this work with OS X 10.8.3? Trying it out with QuickTIme Player, iTunes & Safari and doesn’t auto hide mouse cursor. It worked in previous OS’s like OS X 10.8.2 I believe.

  53. Fabrice Says:

    Hi,

    thank you for this tool!
    Do you think you could make it applescriptable or even just have a command line tool? This would allow touch screen app developers to integrate it in their (our 😉 applications.

    Thanks!

  54. notchfiend Says:

    YESSSSSSSSSSS!

    Thanks!

  55. Che Says:

    This still works in Mountain Lion! You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

    I kinda hate myself for putting it that way but dammit I’m taking that phrase right back from the hipsters..

  56. Miha Says:

    Thanks so much!! I really urgently needed something like that.

  57. Anthony Says:

    Thank you for providing such a great little applet. This is fantastic for use with touch system configurations as there is no real need for a cursor in a touch interface kiosk.

  58. Clevermonkey Says:

    Joining the chorus hoping for a 64-bit version! Love the app, does what it says on the box.

  59. The Future Says:

    Looking forward to a 64-bit version as well!

  60. webb Says:

    sweet!! one thing though: it would be great for looking at pictures and videos or anything with universal access mouse scroll zoom, but the mouse won’t hide when zoomed…

  61. jroyer Says:

    Perfect fix for the Hulu desktop cursor bug!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!

  62. Stefan Nowak Says:

    I too would appreciate a 64-bit version! Thanks!

  63. Paul Be Says:

    You are my hero! I am recording painting in Photoshop for an animation and now I can do so without the cursor getting in the way. Legend!

  64. Mirakel75 Says:

    A 64-bit version would be soooooo appreciated!!

    Thanks in advance!!

  65. diesector Says:

    Yes! I’ve wanted something like this for a while. TY

  66. SatanasInc. Says:

    Hi!

    Nice tool. Thank you very much. Very usefull an very good idea.
    It work perfectly.
    Thanx again.
    Greetings from spain!

  67. Pyrofallout Says:

    Would love to see a revival of this app. Just found it and it works great. I think a few things would be the ability to always hide cursor all the time in certain apps, like Boxee. 🙂

  68. Apollo2X Says:

    Thank you so much!!!! I love it. I was always irritated about the mac cursor getting in the way in full screen modes. The only issue that I’ve found so far is that on Snow Leopard, the pref pane keeps wanting to restart once, every time you try to open it.

  69. Marc Says:

    Hi,

    Would you consider releasing Cursorcerer under GPL? I’d love to fix autostart and disable logging.

  70. maismeel Says:

    Love it! thanks a lot!

  71. Steven Hum Says:

    Useful app… as you don’t appear to have time to address the initialization issues reported above and it remains a 32 bit application, any chance you would be willing to release the code to the public domain so it can be updated to be 64 bit Snow Leopard compliant?

    Thanks regardless!

  72. Stefan Nowak Says:

    1) I like your application, it’s very handy!
    2) I hereby file a BUG REPORT.

    SETTINGS in my System Preferences Tab:
    Hide idle cursor after: NEVER
    Always show cursor if moved: FALSE

    BEHAVIOUR
    If I set it like this the program works correct, also after awaking from a system-sleep, but after the next reboot, Cursorcerer forgets its adequate behaviour, although the settings at com.doomlaser.cursorcerer.plist look correct.

    WORKING ENVIRONMENT
    MacOSX 10.4.11 + Cursorcerer 1.0

    Please fix this! You can contact me via email. Please keep my address really private (as you promised next to the form).

  73. Stefan Nowak Says:

    Great little app!
    Want to report a little bug:

    Hide idle cursor after: NEVER
    Always show

  74. Neko Says:

    Great little app, just one comment, do we really need to fill the console log with these lines?

    2008-03-02 14:50:28.833 Cursorcerer[212] HIDING IDLE CURSOR!
    2008-03-02 14:50:30.233 Cursorcerer[212] SHOWING CURSOR! autoShow: 1
    etc…
    etc..
    etc.

  75. Marc Says:

    I’m with Jack – getting it to function in Photoshop is my number one wish. Just got my Modbook also, and if the pencil cursor could be eliminated… I’d have to do a little dance.

  76. jack Says:

    I can’t seem to get it to work using Photoshop, which is what I really wanted this app for. Any reason why PS seems to thwart Cursorcerr.

  77. Tobeon Says:

    Brilliant app thingy! Thank you very much! ^_^

  78. Stephen Says:

    FANTASTIC application. But I am running into the issue with reboots. After a reboot on a Tiger machine the cursor doesn’t hide until I go into the cursorcerer pref panel and click on the timing slider.

  79. Julien Says:

    Hi,

    I’ve been looking for a way to look at those flash embedded movies without my cursor being in the way (as you described)
    just perfect! thanks for the tool!
    grtz,
    Julien

  80. johnnyb Says:

    I also wish it would stay active after reboot. I keep forgetting I have it installed, which sucks, cos this is otherwise great.

  81. Wally Rodriguez Says:

    Hello:

    Just trying your utility with a ModBook Mac (tablet mac) that I just received. It’s great because it allows me to forget that there is a slight offset of the pen. I have a request to keep the cursor hidden at all times as well as one to allow the utility to work after a reboot, without having to go to the control panel.

    Great job.

    Thanks!!

  82. Ton Hermans Says:

    I use a mac mini with keynote as a player and hide the menubar with menu bar tint (http://www.manytricks.com/blog/?id=21). By making the menu bar black it only shows up when I move the cursor above it. Every nigh I do a reboot for my system, but after a reboot the cursor is always on the left up corner, and Cursorcerer doesn’t work yet, I first have to click on the prefernce panne to activate it? “”What I need for a perfect presentation machine is Cursorcerer to hide the mouse after a reboot.””” Or a script witch moves the corsor after a reboot? Maybe I can activate Cursorcerer with the login pane.I would be very happy with a tip.

  83. Joe Bloe Says:

    Hey I love Cursorceror, I have it set to disappear after 3 seconds. But when I reboot, it doesn’t do it anymore until I go into the preference pane and alter the timing slightly to 2 or 4 seconds.

    Is there a way to have it permanently automatically hide after 3 seconds, and last through reboots, without ever having to go back into the preference pane?

  84. MacManKind Says:

    You rock! May your ancestors smile upon you and the Fates be most kind to you. Hiding the mouse cursor is a great service to MacManKind.

  85. Personman Says:

    I’ve been looking for this for a long time. Thanks!

  86. gustav Says:

    I love Cursorcerer, the best mouse app on mac os x.

  87. anthony Says:

    Somehow or another I have turned into the go to tech guy everytime we start a new season of Between the Lions. After finding this golden nuggett of tech lovelyness I wont be waiting but sending it to all of the cast and crew. Wow! Big big thanks.
    anthony
    aka
    “Lionel”
    Between the Lions

  88. studio910 Says:

    i am not worthy …

    may your guinness never be headless or empty.

    tanx, man.

  89. Drew Says:

    Wow, I absolutely LOVE this, but I find that no matter how many seconds I set it for, the “Hide Idle Cursor After:” setting hides the cursor after a random amount of time, usually around 15 seconds, sometimes more, sometimes as little as 8! Other than that one little quibble, though, this little add-on is the absolute BEST, and I think we should all nominate it for the upcoming MacWorld Reader Awards!! Write to: Philip Michaels pmichaels@macworld.com to nominate it!

  90. steve Says:

    thanks for a great product.

  91. Charles Dostale Says:

    Bas :

    I have the same problem on one machine. The hot key toggles, but the cursor does not obey the “Always show cursor if moved” setting. Intel Mac Mini. In my case I am loading DVD Player at login. I wonder if the cursor hiding in DVD Player is interacting with Cursorcerer.

  92. askii Says:

    Cheers for this!

    I’ve written a script to autoload a QuickTime on startup, and go full-screen (for a video screening in an exhibition space).

    Previously, half the time the cursor vanished, half the time it hung around. Irritating.

    With this however, the little bugger is out of sight for good 🙂

  93. David Says:

    Thanks this is a big help to me, just last Friday night I was showing zoomed video on a big screen and annoyed at the damn mouse pointer.

    FYI: Minor possible bug: after install I opened the preference pane and in the hot key window it said “ctrl-option-k.” I then exited system preferences and tried the hot key combo; it did not work. I went back to the preference pane and this time the hot key window said “??K.” I exited preferences & this time it worked.

  94. Michæl Says:

    Actually, as a further comment—I’d like to recommend a keystroke for people to use. The “clear” button on the number pad. Not sure what this key does in Mac OS X; it doesn’t seem to clear anything at all. Macbook users can access this with Fn+6. If you are like me, then you like your keyboard shortcuts to make sense, and I can think of nothing more fitting for the “clear” button than to make the mouse disappear.

  95. Michæl Says:

    I too have been looking for this for a long time, but could never find anything through message boards or googling.

    1) Get the word out there! Other people might not know what search terms to use either.
    2) Add a donate button. This is worth $5 to me, and maybe to some other people.

  96. Bas Says:

    It doesn’t stick… For me… I need to activate the control panel AND click on the slider to have the functionality restored… It then works some time… Not sure what makes it stop. But it doesn’t survives restarts…

    if it would do that too it would be perfect…

    i have al the latest and gratest os updates

  97. Katsuyuki Namba Says:

    At last! I found the great solution! Thanks a lot!

  98. Charles Dostale Says:

    The ability to toggle this via an AppleScript would be awesome. I control Apple’s DVD Player with AppleScript to be full screen and turn off the controller. To also hide the cursor would be Sweet.

  99. Joe Bloe Says:

    You have answered my prayers. I’ve wanted this for a LOOOOOOONG time, now when I put my wacom pen back in its holder to type, the cursor disappears after 3 seconds.

    YOU ARE THE SHIT!

  100. hansi Says:

    just wanted to say thanks for this, it works amazingly well!

  101. Rees Maxwell Says:

    Yea!! I, too, am always trying to manage getting the most zoom with my cursor being just below the movie .. and now you’ve solved it! Bravo!!

    I don’t see a paypal link here to chip in beer money. Consider it!

  102. RTouris Says:

    Kudos for this one, some people suggested that tapping any key while zoomed in works just as well, but it won’t and never has for me afaik so your implementation seems to be the sole solution to this issue. Thanks!

  103. dfbills Says:

    Thank you very much. I’m using this with my MacMini on my HD TV.

  104. Nick Says:

    Nice! I can also see this being useful when using other full screen video apps, VLC, Democracy, etc. The cursor is always in my damn way.

Leave a Reply