How to fix white or invisible text cursor in Windows 10 and 11

There is a very odd and extremely annoying bug that affects Chromium-based apps and browsers on Windows 10 and 11. It causes the text cursor to turn white or invisible for a few moments when hovering over text input fields. Some users started experiencing it almost two years ago, while I noticed it for the first time on my system just several weeks ago. Fortunately, a fix is pretty simple, and it requires making a simple change in Windows Registry.

Interestingly, Nvidia has been recommending this tweak since late 2021 as a way to address display flickering after updating to a certain graphics driver. Moreover, many AMD users reported that applying it also resolved similar issues on systems with AMD graphics cards.

Here is how to fix the invisible text cursor in Windows 10 and 11:

1. Press Win + R and type regedit to launch Registry Editor.
2. Paste the following path into the address bar: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm
3. Click Edit > New > Value > DWORD (32-bit value).
4. Rename the new value to OverlayTestMode and double-click it.
5. Change the value data from 0 to 5.

   

6. Restart your computer.

If you are not comfortable with manually editing the system registry, try the following:

1. Open Notepad and paste the following:
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm]
   "OverlayTestMode"=dword:00000005
2. Click File > Save As.
3. Select All files from the "Save as type" drop-down and rename the file to anything with the .reg extension. For example, fix.reg.
4. Find the saved file, double-click it, and confirm changes in the registry.
5. Restart your computer.

The invisible text cursor bug should now be gone.

Bonus option: You can go to Settings > Personalization > Themes > Mouse cursor and select any non-default cursor for "Text select." This should work as well, although the most effective option is to apply the registry change described above.