Oct 21, 2015 Get beautiful cursors with one click in Windows 10 By default, Windows 10 comes with no custom cursors bundled and uses the same cursors as Windows 8. Users who love customizing their OS might be bored to see the same set of cursors in all recent versions of Windows.
Not sure if this is still a problem for you, but I figured it out.
More steps are needed.
1. Open up the control panel the old fashioned way or do the windows key + x and type in control.exe.
Typing in /name Microsoft.Mouse didn't work for me, so I probably did something wrong.
2. I just typed Mouse in the search bar in the control panel. You should see Mouse with several options -- I clicked the change mouse settings link. (I'm fully aware this is the slower way to access it, but it worked, that's all I care about).
3. Once the Mouse Properties Window opens, select the Pointers Tab. Under the Section that reads 'Customize' -- find the pointer you want to change and select it. Then click browse and give it a minute for the icons to display in the list as well as the file names.
For me, the normal arrow pointer and link select 'hand' icons are ridiculously small, so these are the 2 examples I will use.
4. Example 1: The default link select pointer (white arrow) is aero_arrow (I think). I browsed to aero_arrow_l (they give you a preview of the size in the Browse window). I'm assuming this means aero_arrow_large. There's also an xl that's even bigger.
Example 2: The default link select pointer (hand pointing) is aero_link (I think). I browsed to aero_link_l (they give you a preview of the size in the Browse window). I'm assuming this means areo_link_large. There's also an xl that's even bigger.
I don't know that I care to bother with the other pointer options at this point, but hopefully if you want to do the others, there's a large version of the icon that you can browse to and find.
Let’s face it, the mouse cursors included with Windows are getting a bit old. While it’s seen a few tweaks over the years, that white mouse cursor has remained largely the same for over a decade. You don’t have to wait for Microsoft to give Windows a new mouse cursor set – you can easily download and use beautiful user-created mouse cursor sets for Windows.
There’s a thriving community of Windows customizers5 Cool Ways To Customize Your Windows 7 System5 Cool Ways To Customize Your Windows 7 SystemRead More creating custom cursor sets and putting them online for us to download. You’ll find everything from cursor schemes based on other operating systems (like Mac OS XHow To Install Mountain Lion On A PC [Hackintosh]How To Install Mountain Lion On A PC [Hackintosh]Are you not looking forward to Windows 8? Perhaps you're jaded by Microsoft’s decision to kill of Windows Home Server? Are you maybe tired of Windows Media Center being treated like a second class citizen?...Read More) to custom cursor themes created from scratch.
Downloading Mouse Cursors
The first thing you’ll need to do is download a set of cursors you want to use. You’ll find a lot of user-created cursors on DeviantArt, and there are also quite a few on Customize.org.
Browse through the archives on these websites and you’ll find everything from user-created cursor sets to cursor schemes that imitate other operating systems. For example, you can install cursor themes that look like Mac OS X, Chrome OS, Ubuntu, or the KDE Oxygen icons on Linux. There’s also a Metro-style cursor set inspired by Windows Phone 7.
You’ll also find entirely unique cursor sets, such as the black Obsidian cursors, green Gaia09 cursors, cursors in the style of the popular GANT icon set, and the Pulse Glass cursors with partial animation and glass-like transparencyTweak & Customize The Color In Windows 7's Aero Glass With These 5 ToolsTweak & Customize The Color In Windows 7's Aero Glass With These 5 ToolsOne of my favorite features in Windows 7 is Aero Glass. There’s something really appealing about the whole Aero look, and I love changing the look and feel of my system by changing Aero colors....Read More.
The cursor schemes above are just a few of some of the most popular cursors available for download. There’s a huge archive of custom cursors to dig through – you’re sure to find something you love if you dig deep enough.
Installing a Cursor Scheme
The downloaded cursor icon set file may be in .7z format. If so, you can use 7-Zip, a great file archiving and extraction program we’ve covered in the past7Zip: A Free Program to Unzip Uncommon Archive Formats7Zip: A Free Program to Unzip Uncommon Archive FormatsRead More, to extract it.
After extracting your downloaded cursor theme, you’ll often see a .inf file in its folder. Right-click the .inf file and select Install to install the cursor scheme on your computer. (If the scheme didn’t come with an .inf file, see the next section below for instructions.)
The cursor scheme will now be installed. However, it won’t be automatically activated. To change your cursor theme, press the Start button, type Mouse pointer looks, and click the Change how the mouse pointer looks option. (On Windows 8, you’ll have to click Settings on the search screen that appears.)
Click the Scheme dropdown box and select the cursor set you installed – all the mouse pointer schemes you install will be listed in this box. Click the Apply button to activate your new cursor set.
Select the default Windows Aero scheme if you want to undo your changes. You can also select one of the other mouse cursor schemes that Windows includes – you can use larger mouse cursors7 Steps to Make Computers Accessible for the Elderly7 Steps to Make Computers Accessible for the ElderlyRead More or black ones instead of white ones.
Setting Custom Cursors
Some mouse cursor schemes may not include .inf files for easy installation. You may also want to create your own cursor theme by combining different cursors from several different cursor schemes.
Windows 10 Mouse Pointer Schemes
To set custom cursors for each individual pointer action, first select the mouse cursor scheme you want to start from. Then, select one of the actions under customize. Click the Browse button and browse to the .cur or .ani file you want to use for each action.
When you’re done, you can use the Save As button to save your custom cursor scheme so you can easily switch to it in the future.
Mouse Pointers and Windows Themes
By default, mouse pointers are linked to Windows themesYour Easy Guide to Windows 7 ThemesYour Easy Guide to Windows 7 ThemesRead More. If you change to a new a theme in the Personalization control panel, you’ll lose your custom cursor scheme. To prevent this from happening, uncheck the Allow themes to change mouse pointers checkbox in the Mouse Properties window.
Creating Your Own Cursors
If you’re the creative type, you can also create your own mouse cursors for Windows – they’re just small images, although they can also be animated. To create your own mouse cursors, try RealWorld Cursor Editor, which we’ve covered in the past. It walks you through the process of creating cursors and customizing them – it even comes with tutorials. You can use the cursors you create yourself and even share them online!
What’s your favorite mouse cursor set for Windows? Leave a comment and share any gems you’ve found!
Best Mouse Pointer Themes Windows 10
when i click install on the .inf file it wont show in control panel pls help
Did you right click the file and then clicked install and went through the procedure? If so, you go to control panel > search up mouse > go into pointers and it should be there as 'Pulse glass'.
Best guide 10/10
This article is pretty Rossome!!
omg house_owner!!!!!!!
i'm a rescue beagle mom....and i found a beagle(!!) cursor on a page called cursors-4u.com and couldn't figure out how to open and apply it....thank you for having instructions explaining how to do it!!! i have computer issues, so this was a great help!!!!
I have used Curser FX from Stardock for years, have many different curser themes, but I use the same one all the time, go figure.
nice article. is there any 3d cursors?
Tired of using the same mouse cursor? Yes. But waaaayyyyyy too much trouble for me!
still prefer the mac osx cursors
Nice. I have always hated the white cursor, it gets lost when you search for it among all those open windows! I use a custom made contrast black with rounded white edges. Its based on Ubuntu cursor set.
Awesome article on cursors & related. Very good learning tool and reference!
Ahh very cool!
the original - simple and awesome!!
hey... nyc... but creating the cursor not seems sooo.. interesting ... :( But default cursors are good... always... :)
My mouse is on the left side of my desk. It is very easy to use by switching the buttons. What would make it even easier is if the cursors slanted to the right like this ' / ' instead of the default ' ' . Any easy way to flip cursor sets or are there left-handed cursor sets available?
perhaps to make automatic rotation so that cursor changes as rotating wallpaper does on desktop:)
I collect cursors and change the set everytime I change my visual style. So far my favorite is XZ-Bone, looks cool and professional. That Gaia one is nice. Thanks.
Realworld editor is a win. It's a good freeware.Or you can install CursorFX
http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorfx/Thank you very much Chris. Review some of the pages you mentioned to change the look of my laptop
Thanks for all that. I'm not tired of the cursor however but after installing one of them I now think that I was ;) I remember 2 or 3 years ago that cursor mania ad always pop up on every website. I checked it but didn't liked it.
Using the original and still loving it
I prefer the Mac OSX ones... But my computer is a PC jejeje