LockCursorInMonitor

When designing and updating operating systems, many features and optimizations desired by a certain category of users may not end up in the developers’ priority list, due to the sheer amount of effort that goes into ensuring a stable usage experience for all consumers.

As a result, the open-source community takes it upon itself to fulfil the needs of smaller parts of the user base, with an excellent example being LockCursorInMonitor’s highly specific functionality that restricts your mouse’s movement area to its current screen, allowing you to snap windows to the sides of your display with less effort.

Once installed, double-clicking the application’s shortcut instantly launches its background service alongside its dedicated system tray icon for an easily accessible user interaction pattern that allows the toggling of its core function and termination of the process in case it clashes with other running programs.

In terms of the interface, the clean layout follows certain cues from Microsoft’s Fluent Design language by employing the signature Segoe UI font and pill-shaped switches, while also automatically adjusting itself to the operating system’s current dark or light theme to seamlessly blend in with the rest of the native programs.

When running, the app dynamically locks your cursor in the monitor it resides at the time of activation while the Control hotkey is being pressed, making for a temporary and fast-paced usage pattern compared to other pieces of software that restrict the mouse’s range to a user-set display.

Users with mouse-focused workflows involving multiple opened windows stacked on top of each other to quickly change between them may encounter difficulties resizing them if their extremities happen to be placed next to the display’s borders. As such, holding the dedicated key and preventing the cursor from going over to the adjacent display lets users circumvent that situation.

Moreover, when dragging windows towards a screen’s edge to trigger a dual-pane view for multitasking purposes, some users have the tendencies of sliding the mouse further than required when operating with high a high sensitivity setting, stepping into the following monitor, which is another situation where the app can come in handy.

If you wish to get accustomed to your newly purchased array of monitors and the challenges that accompany the advantages when it comes to dragging, resizing and moving windows around, LockCursorInMonitor may be the right tool for the job, considering its ease of use, flawless performance and lightweight memory footprint.