How to Change Hover Activate Window Time in Windows 11

This tutorial shows you how to change how long your mouse needs to hover over a window before it opens. You can use this feature in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Why Would You Want This?

Hover activate window time allows windows to open automatically when your cursor hovers over them for a customizable duration, eliminating the need to click and letting you switch between windows faster and more intuitively.

If you turn on this feature, a window will activate by itself after you hover over it for half a second (500 milliseconds by default). You can make this time longer or shorter based on what you prefer.

What Happens When You Change This Setting?

Once you adjust the hover time, Windows will wait for the exact amount of time you set before opening a window. This can make your workflow faster or slower, depending on your needs.

Option One: Change Hover Time in Settings

Change your hover activate window time through Windows 11 Settings by navigating to Accessibility > Mouse, then adjusting the hover duration slider under Activate on hover—this method works on Windows 11 build 26100.4202 (24H2) and newer.

1. Open Settings by pressing Win+I.
2. Click Accessibility on the left side, then click Mouse on the right side under Interaction.
3. Under Activate on hover, adjust the Amount of time mouse needs to be over a window to activate it to what you want.
   

   Note: This requires Activate on hover to be turned on first.

4. You can now close Settings if you like.

Option Two: Change Hover Time Using Registry Editor

1. Open Registry Editor by typing regedit.exe in your search bar and pressing Enter.
   

   ⚠️ Requires admin privileges

2. Navigate to the location below in the left pane of Registry Editor.
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

3. In the right pane of the Desktop key, double-click the ActiveWndTrkTimeout entry to modify it.
   

   Note: If you do not see the ActiveWndTrkTimeout entry, verify you have turned on Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse, refresh by pressing F5 in Registry Editor, and check again.

4. Select Decimal, type in a number for how many milliseconds (ms) you want for the timeout, and click OK.
   

   Tip: The default time is 500 ms. 1000 ms equals 1 second.

5. Close Registry Editor.

Summary

Changing your hover activation time is easy. You can use the Settings app if you have the latest Windows 11 version, or you can edit the Registry if you prefer the manual method. Either way, you can now customize how long your mouse needs to hover over a window before it automatically opens. This helps you work the way that feels most comfortable to you.