Use an Apple Magic Mouse on Windows 11 PC

You do not have to abandon Windows just to enjoy the precision, build quality, and touch-surface elegance of the Apple Magic Mouse. I run a dedicated Windows 11 machine for client work and I like my desk accessories to be consistent across every setup, so I set about making the Magic Mouse work properly on Windows. In this guide I will walk you through connecting and fully enabling the Magic Mouse on your Windows 11 PC — including scrolling. Pick up an Apple Magic Mouse in Black or White from Amazon UK and let's get into it.

TL:DR – I resisted the Magic Mouse for years, then got one with a Mac and slowly came round to the feel and the freedom. Now I have that same experience on Windows too.

I spent decades happily using cheap wired mice — my first was an expensive Microsoft Mouse that arrived with its own InPort expansion card for an IBM PC XT back in 1985. Old habits die hard. But the Magic Mouse genuinely won me over, and with Apple now shipping the mouse with a USB-C charging port rather than Lightning, it fits more naturally into a modern Windows desk setup than ever before.

Using an Apple Magic Mouse on Windows 11 with working scrolling

What you need before you start

You will need a Windows 11 PC with Bluetooth and an Apple Magic Mouse. The current model charges via USB-C, ships in several colours, and is the one to buy if you are starting fresh. If you already own an older Lightning-charging model it works just as well for this guide — the pairing and driver process is identical. You can find the current Apple Magic Mouse at Amazon UK at a competitive price.

If your PC does not have built-in Bluetooth — less common now but still a reality on older desktops — you will need a USB Bluetooth adapter. The TP-Link Nano USB Bluetooth 5.3 Adapter (UB5A) is a reliable, plug-and-play choice that supports Windows 11 without needing separate driver installation. Make sure whatever adapter you choose uses the right USB connector for your machine — USB-A or USB-C.

Connecting the Magic Mouse to Windows 11

The pairing process is straightforward and takes under two minutes once your mouse is charged and ready.

• Enable Bluetooth on Windows 11: Open Settings, go to Bluetooth & devices, and make sure Bluetooth is switched on.
• Put the Magic Mouse into pairing mode: Slide the power switch on the underside of the mouse off and back on again. The green indicator will flash briefly to confirm it is discoverable.
• Add the device: In Bluetooth & devices, click Add device, then choose Bluetooth. Windows will scan and display the Magic Mouse by name. Click it to pair. Within a few seconds the connection is confirmed and you can click Done.
• If the mouse does not appear: It has almost certainly been paired to a Mac previously. Connect it to that Mac with a USB-C cable (or Lightning cable on older models), open System Settings > Bluetooth, find the mouse, and choose Forget This Device. Toggle the mouse off and on again, then retry the Windows pairing process.

At this point the mouse works — left click, right click, cursor movement — all functional. What does not work yet is scrolling. The basic Windows Bluetooth HID driver has no concept of the Magic Mouse's touch surface. For that you need Apple's own driver, and getting it onto a plain Windows machine requires a small workaround.

Installing the Apple Magic Mouse driver on Windows 11

Apple has always maintained a team writing Windows software — primarily to support Boot Camp, the mechanism that allowed Intel-based Macs to run Windows natively. The Boot Camp driver package includes a fully functional Apple Magic Mouse driver that enables touch-surface scrolling. Apple does not distribute this package independently, but the drivers themselves are legitimate Apple software and the method below simply retrieves them from Apple's own servers.

The tool that makes this possible is Brigadier, a small open-source utility that downloads the Boot Camp driver bundle for any specified Mac model identifier. Boot Camp itself is no longer available on Apple Silicon Macs — Apple dropped it when they moved away from Intel — but Apple has continued to update the Windows driver packages for users who still run Windows on Intel Macs, and those packages remain available. The Magic Mouse driver inside them works perfectly on a standalone Windows 11 PC.

For the download, you want to specify an Intel Mac model that supports Boot Camp and Bluetooth 5. The 2018 Mac mini (model identifier Macmini8,1) is a solid choice — it is the last Intel Mac mini, has Bluetooth 5, and its Boot Camp package contains a current Magic Mouse driver.

• Download the Brigadier executable from GitHub to your Windows 11 PC. Open a Command Prompt or Windows Terminal in the same folder and run: brigadier -m Macmini8,1. Brigadier will contact Apple's servers and download the full Boot Camp driver package into a subfolder.
• Once complete, navigate into the downloaded folder and find the Magic Mouse driver at: BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleWirelessMouse. Right-click the .inf file and choose Install.
• Restart Windows when prompted. When your PC comes back up, the Magic Mouse touch surface will scroll correctly — both vertically and horizontally.

It is worth noting that Windows 11's increasingly aggressive driver signature enforcement occasionally causes a prompt or warning during the .inf install step. If that happens, confirm you want to proceed — the driver is genuine Apple software and poses no risk. On some machines a second restart clears any lingering cursor hesitation after the driver installs.

Troubleshooting

• Mouse won't pair: The most common cause is a previous Mac pairing that hasn't been cleared. Connect the mouse physically to a Mac via USB-C (or Lightning on older models), forget the device in macOS Bluetooth settings, power cycle the mouse, and try again from Windows.
• Cursor is sluggish or drops out: On the current USB-C model this almost always means the battery is low. Plug it in via USB-C to charge — unlike the Lightning model, you can charge and use the mouse simultaneously if you have a long enough cable, though the geometry is awkward. A few minutes of charge is usually enough to restore normal behaviour.
• Scrolling still not working after driver install: Try unplugging any USB Bluetooth adapter, restarting, and re-pairing. Also confirm the .inf install completed without errors — run it again from an elevated (Administrator) Command Prompt if you are unsure.
• Third-party gesture apps: Several Windows utilities add swipe gestures and momentum scrolling to the Magic Mouse, going well beyond what the Boot Camp driver provides. I haven't needed them — left click, right click, and scroll covers everything I do — but they exist if you want a closer approximation of the macOS experience.
• Running one mouse across both platforms: If you use a Magic Mouse on a Mac and a separate one on Windows, the classic trick still works well: keep a White mouse for macOS and a Black one for Windows. Reaching for the right one becomes muscle memory within a day or two.
• Accidental Mac re-pairing: Plugging the Magic Mouse into a Mac via USB-C to charge will cause macOS to claim it and drop the Windows pairing. If this happens, forget the device on the Mac, power cycle the mouse, and re-pair with Windows. It takes about ninety seconds and becomes second nature.

Setting up the Magic Mouse on Windows 11 is genuinely straightforward once you know the Boot Camp driver trick. The hardware is excellent, the Bluetooth connection is stable, and with the current USB-C model you are no longer dealing with the indignity of a Lightning port buried in the base while the mouse is unusable. Get the driver installed, pair it up, and you have one of the better mice available on any platform — regardless of which operating system is underneath it.