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Autohide mouse cursor when playing Flash video in full screen?

  • 4 replies
  • 17 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Chris Ilias

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser
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Is there a way to make my mouse pointer hide after a few seconds of inactivity when playing Flash video full screen, and have it reappear when the mouse is moved again? If other video players can do it, surely Firefox can too.

Before someone points out the obvious, I've already tried moving the cursor off screen. The problem is that you can always still see part of it. The hand cursor is the worst as only half of it can be hidden when moved to the edge of the screen. It's very distracting and just isn't a good enough solution.

I'm hoping there is perhaps a setting, shortcut key, or addon for Firefox that does what I want. If not, perhaps it can be added as a user enabled option within Firefox itself?

Oh, and before anyone recommends the "Hide pointer while typing" option as well, please be aware that it is useless in Windows. It also isn't really applicable to my problem, which I know from my Google searches many others are complaining about.

I also know there is a $20 program out there called CursorHider that might do the job, but it seems rather silly to have to pay for something that should already be a built in option. Plus it would hide the cursor regardless of which program is running. I only want the pointer to hide when playing Flash video fullscreen.

Many thanks in advance! :)

Is there a way to make my mouse pointer hide after a few seconds of inactivity when playing Flash video full screen, and have it reappear when the mouse is moved again? If other video players can do it, surely Firefox can too. Before someone points out the obvious, I've already tried moving the cursor off screen. The problem is that you can always still see part of it. The hand cursor is the worst as only half of it can be hidden when moved to the edge of the screen. It's very distracting and just isn't a good enough solution. I'm hoping there is perhaps a setting, shortcut key, or addon for Firefox that does what I want. If not, perhaps it can be added as a user enabled option within Firefox itself? Oh, and before anyone recommends the "Hide pointer while typing" option as well, please be aware that it is useless in Windows. It also isn't really applicable to my problem, which I know from my Google searches many others are complaining about. I also know there is a $20 program out there called CursorHider that might do the job, but it seems rather silly to have to pay for something that should already be a built in option. Plus it would hide the cursor regardless of which program is running. I only want the pointer to hide when playing Flash video fullscreen. Many thanks in advance! :)

All Replies (4)

Chris Ilias
Chris Ilias
  • Moderator
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It auto-hides from me on youtube full screen, but I'm on Mac.

Are you experiencing the problem on youtube or somewhere else? Or does it matter.

One thing that comes to mind is perhaps you mouse is very sensitive.

Or maybe it is being caused by an add-on. See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser Question owner
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Fullscreen videos on YouTube is indeed one of the places this happens, although it is pretty much the same for any Flash based video site out there.

I actually use two different mice. One is a Logitech MX-1000 and the other is a trackball that is part of an nMedia wireless keyboard. Neither tend to be overly sensitive. My preference in Windows is to have the slider at around 50% with acceleration off.

I only use the four addons listed in my first post, but will check if it is one of them as soon as I get the chance.

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser Question owner
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Cursor doesn't hide when in safe mode either.

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser Question owner
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$20 U.S. is too much to pay for Cursor Hider considering what it does, though it is the kind of thing I would donate to if it were free lol.

Anyways I found a nice workaround at the following URL:

http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic2197.html

There is even a script on the second page that will auto hide the cursor when idle. Not the perfect solution, but plenty good enough for now. Hopefully this will help anyone else that comes here looking for an answer.

PS: From my searching, it appears Chrome users have the exact same problem on Windows. Mac users don't appear to be affected.