Pointus
for macOS & Windows
Dynamic mouse follower & desktop visualizer. Transform your cursor into a laser pointer, interactive presentation spotlight, precision designer tool, or other dynamic visualizer across both macOS and Windows.
Presenters & Educators
Guide attention during presentations and screen recordings with dimming spotlights, laser pointers, and ripple click bursts so viewers never lose track.
Designers & Developers
Inspect interfaces down to the exact pixel with the floating Magnifier loupe, check bounds with full-screen crosshairs, and capture hex colors with the eyedropper.
Desktop Customizers
Spice up your generic system arrow with a friendly butterfly, particle trails, a floating birthday balloon, ascii fish, retro pop art visualizers and much more...
Modular architecture
Combine your mouse follower to your own liking with additional visuals, and let them trigger on mouse clicks or action shortcuts. Tweak colors, sizes, opacity, offsets, trailing lengths, spring stiffness, particle density and much more individually for every component. Don't want the system hardware cursor to show at the same time as Pointus? Hide it!
Multi-display & virtual desktop ready
Pointus seamlessly bridges monitor borders, multi-screen geometries, and multi-desktop environments.
Configurable
Don't like the default shortcuts that come with Pointus? Assign your own shortcuts to turn Pointus on/off and trigger the primary & secondary actions.
True 0% CPU idle sleep
Pointus does not waste cycles. When your cursor rests and active animations finish, the physics engine cuts background processing completely to eliminate battery drain.
| Capability | Free version | Pro version |
|---|---|---|
| Laser pointer [preset] | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mouse click (primary & secondary) effect triggers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hotkey (primary & secondary) effect triggers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hardware (system) cursor visibility toggle | ✓ | ✓ |
| Crosshair [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Spotlight [preset] with animated zoom | — | ✓ |
| Magnifier [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Color picker/eydropper [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Pop art [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Particles [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Stopwatch [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Coordinates [preset] | — | ✓ |
| System monitor [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Speedometer [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Birthday balloon [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Charm on a rope [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Charm on a rubber band [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Aquarium [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Butterfly [preset] | — | ✓ |
| Pac-man arcade[preset] | — | ✓ |
Does Pointus run on both Mac (macOS) and Windows?
Yes! Pointus is built natively for both macOS and Windows.
Will running Pointus drain my laptop battery when not in use?
No. Pointus is built with a 0% CPU idle architecture. As soon as your pointer reaches rest and active animations clear, application activities will pause automatically until motion or hotkeys are detected again.
Why does Pointus request Accessibility permissions on macOS?
macOS require Accessibility permissions so Pointus can calculate cursor coordinates globally across all displays and render visual effects smoothly on top of other running applications. To allow Pointus to function, you must manually designate it as a "trusted" application in your Mac's Settings (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility) which is normally prompted for when launching the Pointus app.
Will the mouse follower and visualizations show when presenting in online meetings?
Yes! Just make sure you share the entire screen/desktop when presenting. All effects and visualizers will be fully visible to your audience. Note that sharing a single app in Teams or Zoom (or similar) hides all desktop overlays, including Pointus - causing only your default system pointer to be shown.
How do I activate Pointus Pro?
Find the "Upgrade to Pro" option in the application menu and follow the instructions. All payments are handled by an external payment provider (Stripe), and will not go through, or be visible in our systems. Only the verification of your actual payment will be sent back to us.
When you purchase Pointus Pro, you receive a personal license key. You can click the instant activation link on the checkout confirmation page or manually enter your key inside the app’s Pro License menu. Make sure to save the license key for future reference. Your license key is personal and is not to be shared with anyone else.
Is it safe to download and install Pointus?
Yes, downloading Pointus from the official download site (253below.com) or from Microsoft Store is perfectly safe!
For Mac users (macOS) - Apple Verified & Notarized: The Pointus macOS installer (.dmg) is cryptographically signed using an official Apple Developer ID, verified and notarized by Apple’s Notary Service.
For Windows users (Windows) - Microsoft Store Certified: The Windows version is packaged as a secure MSIX container. It is signed with a trusted publisher certificate and distributed directly via the Microsoft Store.
What about privacy and my data?
We do not collect any Personal Identifiable Information (PII). We do not know who you are, what your IP address is, or what you use your computer for.
No Screen Capture or Keystroke Logging: While Pointus requires macOS Accessibility permissions to draw custom visualizers over your standard mouse pointer, it never records your screen, captures your keystrokes, or tracks what you click on across other applications and websites.
Anonymous Telemetry (Opt-Out): To help us fix bugs, improve performance and focus our development, Pointus collects minimal, anonymous usage statistics (ie. which visualizer themes are popular). You can easily turn this off at any time with a single click in the app’s Settings menu. Also see: privacy policy.