I'll look further into the control panel settings and the website idea is a great one too.
Even tho I use a mouse, I still have to make sure the cursor isn't 'on' something, such as a smiley face or this is wht i gt

I just wish manufacturers would leave things well enuf alone, you know?

Thanks for all the tips

I so agree with you it's not even funny. I was happy 30 years ago when I got my first IBM desktop. Costs me $3700. YOU NEVER FORGET THAT AMOUNT. I had to be a stay at home mom so I took in typing for lawyers and judges. Imagine paying $3700 for an IBM desktop pc and the whole hard drive was 20 megabytes. And the word processing software was called Multi Mate Advantage. Holy Cow, it's all coming back to me.

And now I have Windows 7, and I can do all neat things and desktops are cheap and monitors are COLORED!!!! My first monitor was some green font or something and we had DOS!!

Oh my god, I feel so old.

lol

Melody

I hear ya, Melody

I actually have my very first computer I used at my office back in the late 80's! You know the ones - with a monitor that reaches 5 feet in the back and has an 8-inch screen and a motherboard the size of a small skyscraper.
It's in a closet somewhere. My husband says to hang on to it, as it might be 'worth' something someday LOL.
Heck, a few more years it'll be an antique like the rest of us!!

Just FYI:

I have a laptop these days.

I've had similar problems with the cursor coming and going in the middle of my sentences as I type. It's nothing to do with the mouse in my case, it's more the place I rest my left wrist on as I'm typing. Bottom left hand corner of my laptop. When I don't do that, it doesn't happen. If my wrist gets heavy there it will take the cursor off into some other place in my text that I'm typing.

Weird but true.

Oh, I really dislike laptops. So I'm going to stay mum except to say no matter what we set for that #$%^ touchpad, it seems to go off on its own where I am concerned. I can be inches above it and still it is clicking away... some sort of telekinesis perhaps? Both of us use a mouse with them, but upNorth we didn't, and I am reminded of the phantom touch pad gremlin that haunts me!

My optical mouse on this standard desktop will jitter at times, and it is always some lint thingy doing it.

Yeah, my mouse does that too occasionally but it's never been a real problem with this laptop I've got now. I do need to say that when in sleep mode, I can hover over my desk even with a duster and it will activate. I do find it very disconcerting, but I figure there must be something I've not corrected. Seems to me these days that we need to be really, really careful and read all the information about what we're using. There seem to be so many tricks.

I Googled as Jo*Mar suggested, and finding out that touchpad performance is largely based upon human factors such as skin type (?), temperature, and humidity. Profound

You can get into the mouse control panel by
Start > Control Panel > Devices > Right click on the mouse Icon > mouse settings, and then experiment from there, depending on the model of the computer/laptop. There are device settings or pointer options, pointer speed, synaptics pointing device, and so on.

I haven't got too far into that because I am having trouble staying online because I am unable to figure out how to enable the network adapter or figure out what the 'Interface Card' is.
BTW, this is a new laptop I am dealing with. My son's school laptops have no problems staying online.......but I am going off on a rabbit trail here, which is another whole issue besides the mysterious floating cursor.

Obviously I have some research to be doing. This is an Acer Aspire laptop.
I haven't even found the user guide yet (I think it's loaded on the computer somewhere). Crazy thing is - I've had this laptop for awhile and have been using it to post here. It's just that I'm finding out that in order to get these 'bugs' worked out, I have to go to the source of the information, which is confusing me more as the moments pass. The more I try, the more technical it becomes.

guess I'm better off just using my computer at my office

Just a thought besides checking for lint in the optical output port on the bottom of the mouse. How about simply changing mouse pads, sounds stupid and way too simple but recently that did take care of one of the Forums member with similar problems.

I have more wireless desktop sets (keyboard and mouse combos) laying around the house than you can shake a stick at. I keep chasing that neon rainbow when it comes to finding the perfect set.....still looking.

Finally, Keyboards and Mice are too cheap to be hassled with that sort of problem...just shotgun the thing out with a new one. if you have the same problem, then you now have a spare mouse and an obvious direction to go....shoot the computer.

I wonder if IPADS will take over and in the future, every thing will be WiFi and we will all be using IPADS?? I got a chance to use my niece's IPAD at a family gathering two weeks ago.

I was around a table with 20 people and telling them about my sprouting adventures and how I make ice cream with the Vitamix and one of the older people said "Oh wow, I wish I could see that", and I said "sure you can, there's a computer in this house (didn't know about the IPAD at that moment). I asked my niece "Can I bring her into the computer room and show her my youtube videos?"

My niece disappears for two minutes, comes out and hands me an IPAD. I said "I have absolutely no idea how to use this thing, find youtube for me and show me how to use this'. WELL!!!! I learned the darn thing in two minutes and there was Melody, passing the IPAD round where 20 people were looking at Alan making ice cream in the Vitamix, and my sprouting videos, etc. Everybody was ooohing and aaahing and Melody was going "Okay!!! this is what I have to save up for"

And I will.

And some forum member indicated that my link to my youtube videos is not coming up under my signature after I post.

Is this true? When you view this post, on the bottom, underneath my floating flower and the word Melody, there should be a link to my Sproutlady Melody Channel on youtube.

Can you view this? It should be right above the little clock. I just checked and I can view it. I hope others can.

Thanks much

Melody