If you’ve been staring at your screen wondering why your mouse pointer disappeared inside classic Outlook or other Microsoft 365 apps for Windows, you’re not imagining things and you’re not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed a bug that causes the mouse pointer to simply vanish as you move it around Outlook’s interface.
Microsoft takes two months to acknowledge what users have known and reported since December. The acknowledgement came in a Microsoft support document published on 19 February 2026, roughly two months after users first started reporting the problem. That’s a long time to leave people fumbling around blind in their inbox.
What’s happening
When you hover over the classic Outlook for Windows interface, the mouse pointer disappears. It’s still technically there, you can tell because email messages in your list change color as your invisible cursor passes over them, but you can’t see it. Microsoft notes the bug also crops up in OneNote and, to a lesser extent, other Microsoft 365 apps.
As one frustrated user put it on Microsoft’s own forums, the app becomes essentially unusable: no visible pointer means struggling to select emails, copy text, or do much of anything.
Workarounds while you wait
Microsoft doesn’t yet have a proper fix, but suggests a few things that may restore your pointer temporarily:
- Click on an email. Hovering until the email highlights, then clicking, can sometimes coax the pointer back into view.
- Switch to PowerPoint and back. Open PowerPoint, click into an editable area, then switch back to Outlook. Odd, but reportedly effective.
- Restart your PC. The classic ‘zoodoo fix’.
The WebView2 connection
Microsoft’s support document hints that the underlying cause may involve WebView2 — the Chromium-based component that Microsoft embeds in various apps including Outlook. If you’re an IT administrator dealing with this, Microsoft is asking affected organisations to open a support case with their Microsoft 365 tenant admin and submit WebView2 diagnostic traces to help with the investigation.
Two months is a long time to leave users wrestling with an invisible mouse pointer before officially acknowledging the problem. It should not take that long for bug reports to reach management.
Classic Outlook has been the workhorse email client for millions of business users for years. Perhaps part of the delay is Microsoft trying to get people and organizations onto its “new Outlook,” which has its own well-documented shortcomings.
It’s very surprising that Microsoft’s suggested workarounds didn’t include changing to Outlook (new) for Windows. Not like Redmond to miss an opportunity like that.
For now, the restart workaround is your most reliable option. Keep an eye on Microsoft’s support page for updates on when a proper fix will arrive.
