Can I use Windows with a broken mouse?

Yes. Ctrl angd alt are your friends. Also your F keys. And your arrow keys.
Experiment.

Thanks Dutch. I actually just found an old mouse in the basement and connected it for now so I’m back in business.

YAY!

I had to deal a mouse that was broken for a week. But I was pretty proficient with hot keys anyway. Man, I was hell on wheels at the end of that week.
I actually prefer hot keys over the mouse for about 80% of my commands.
Rick once stopped and was just watching me.
He said “Watching you type is like watching water flowing ” :D.

In Windows 10 & 11:
Settings->Accessibility->Keyboard

Though good luck getting there without a mouse!

It can be done @Call_Me_Jay.

Sure, just use the arrow keys to move your cursor. The arrow keys are usually on the bottom right of your keyboard.

Does your mouse have an LED aperture on the bottom?

Mine does, and sometimes it’s obstructed by accumulated particulates.

Whenever a keyboard and/or mouse breaks (or even worse, if the Plug and Play ability of your PC breaks), turn on Accessibility settings during bootup. The option is always there.
that way you can use the on-screen keyboard and mouse alternatives that are meant for disabled people. This will enable you to access your data to copy it over to a new computer or to an exterior hard drive.
Older computers will sometimes stop responding to mouse or keyboard. It’s usually a temporary problem that mysteriously comes and mysteriously goes. But more commonly, it’s just a broken mouse or broken keyboard.

SHE FOUND A SPARE MOUSE!!

If it was wireless it might just be the battery of you haven’t checked that yet.

Utilize the Windows Key along with the arrow keys and the tab or shift + tab key. once there hit the enter key.

@Forever_Free What is the Windows Key – I’m on Windows 7 still? I wasn’t able to open any windows just by positioning the cursor and hitting Enter.

As Dutch mentioned, I found an old mouse and installed it, but it is useful knowledge to have.

@JLeslie It isn’t wireless. I well and truly broke the other one.

To the bottom left of your key board should be a key that displays the windows icon.
From there you use your arrow keys to move around.
To simulate a mouse click you hit “enter”.
Hot keys, which is holding down the ctrl or alt button, and then hitting the alphabet letter to make something happen. Hot keys are 10X faster than the mouse.
I taught my students the handful of the most basic ones:
Ctrl P = print
Ctrl C = copy
Ctrl V = print
Ctrl A = hightlight all.
Ctrl s to save
Ctrl S A to “Save as,” which you use the first time you save a document and need to name it.
After that it’s just Ctrl s to save the changes you make.
^^^ those are the bssic ones for me. I never use my mouse to enter those codes.

It was that knowledge that prompted Rick to say my typing looked like flowing water. I’m typing and things are happening on the screen, stuff is printing and I never once touch the mouse.

Also, to highlight certain passages I think you hold the Ctrl key and use the arrow keys but the mouse is just as fast.

The most important one is Ctrl Z which is undo. You accidentally wipe out 2 pages of text, key Ctrl Z to bring it back.

There are options to set your computer to record the the key strokes you use, until you turn recording off. Then you set it to replicate your key strokes in another field, key start, and sit back and watch. I only used that feature at one particular job tho.

So many hot keys! But I use those the most.

When I was teaching at the jail the first lesson was to write their auto biograhy. Two pages or so
Then I started teaching hot keys.
I’d say “Hit ctrl A.” Theyd see their work was highlighted.
Then I said “Hit enter.”
That deleted every thing they had labored so hard on! The shocked looks were priceless!
Then I said “ctrl Z…” and the world got healed! Pretty sure none of them ever forgot that command!

Oh yeah. I use Ctrl C and Ctrl P and Ctrl V all the time but I still don’t see a way to open a tab without the mouse. I use Shift and Control to delete a list of documents.

Hit enter @janbb.

It doesn’t do it. I have. It’s fine.

Ctrl T is to open a tab without a mouse.

^^ Good to know!

And ctrl tab to scroll through open tabs.

@janbb The windows key is on most keyboards between the left ctrl and alt to the right of the Fn key. Looks like 4 little boxes but it the icon for the windows logo.

There are many shortcuts that utilize holding the windows key and another key. Most common is Windows Key + E will open Windows Explorer
Windows + L will lock your screen

Link to shortcuts in Windows