How to Change Cursor Blink Rate in Windows 11

The text cursor is that small, blinking vertical line you see whenever you type. By default, Windows makes it blink every 530 milliseconds. If you have trouble spotting it, you can change how fast or slow it blinks.

Why change this? It helps with accessibility and makes it easier to keep track of where you are typing on your screen.

What happens when done? Your cursor will blink at your preferred speed, or it will stop blinking entirely if you choose to disable it.

Change the blink rate using Control Panel

This is the easiest way to adjust your settings.

1. Open the launch the Control Panel app from your Start menu.
2. Change the “View by” setting to Icons.
3. Select Keyboard from the list.

In the window that appears, look for the Speed tab. You will see a slider labeled Cursor blink rate. Move it to the left to make it slower or to the right to make it faster. Click OK to finish.

Change the blink rate using the Registry Editor

Note: This method requires admin privileges. Be careful, as changing registry settings can affect your system.

If you prefer using the Windows registry editor, follow these steps:

1. Open the Windows Registry.
2. Navigate to this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

3. Right-click in the empty space on the right side and select New > String Value.
4. Name the new value CursorBlinkRate.
5. Double-click CursorBlinkRate and enter a number between 200 (fast) and 1200 (slow).
6. To turn off the blinking, set the value to -1.

Restart your computer to see the changes take effect.

Summary

You can easily change how fast your text cursor blinks to make it easier to see. You can use the simple slider in the Control Panel Control Panel or Windows Registry Editor, or you can use the Registry Editor to set a specific speed in milliseconds. Remember that registry changes require a computer restart to work.