The cursor is one of the most looked at objects on the desktop. I usually think it’s icons or the Start menu but your cursor is the digital representation of where your eyes are going.
Which means that when you change your cursor from the default white arrow, you better like the new option as that’s what you are going to be looking at nearly all day while using your device. And for me, that’s a tough thing to change.
CursorFX makes it easy and there are tons of different configurable styles but as someone who has run WindowBlinds, StartX, and various versions of Fences for decades, I haven’t taken the jump to try and change the cursor for an extended period of time. Why? I’m not fully sure and it’s probably something I should try at some point.
It could be that the simple and non-distracting nature of the basic cursor helps keep me focused but I am curious for those that do change their cursor – what’s your current setup look like?
In the world of AI, connecting AI up to your cursor seems a bit, extreme. Not saying that I would want to or that we should enable that functionality but if AI can see what’s on your screen already, having a smart cursor does make me wonder what that type of experience would look like for the daily workflow.
Imagine if your cursor could adapt to the task at hand, offering contextual suggestions or shortcuts based on what you're working on. For instance, it could highlight relevant tools when editing photos or suggest formatting options while writing documents but typically, I find this more distracting than value-add.
Analog computing, or whatever we will call computing in the pre-AI era, is still evolving to whatever the desktop-of-tomorrow will be like and the cursor isn’t going away anytime soon. I got a little off tangent from simply customizing but the cursor hasn’t seen any big evolution in decades but maybe more change is on the horizon.
Thanks for a very interesting post, Brad. After trying CursorFx many times, I've stuck with a black one...a bit larger than the default MS plain vanilla one.
I've thought about AI cursors and what occurs to me is an interactive text cursor - for example, if you're writing about cursors, predictive text and/or links to articles about cursors might appear, which could be added to the text as sticky notes or if you're describing a cursor shape and color, and image of it might form which could be added to the text.
It could be optically directed and virtual, moved by eye movement and selecting, copying and pasting could be done with blinking and/or verbal commands. Eventually, I suppose it could be EEG directed (along with the computer).
One of the first things I do.
My default is one called "Great White" and is about 3 times the default.
Life is too short trying to find your mouse....
I have a 4K x 40" monitor and even the largest default Windows cursor was getting lost on the screen, so I purchased CursorFX 4 (early 2020) in order to get a larger cursor that wouldn't get lost. I really enjoyed having a variety of cursors available on WinCustomize. I changed my cursor quite often, as there were new cursors to choose from every week. Creating a new cursor for CursorFX 4 was one of the first projects I worked on for WinCustomize. I have been using fly by NIGHT 2.0 since I created it in April of 2021. I occasionally download new cursors from WinCustomize that look like fun and use them for a few days, but I always go back to my old standard. I like that it only changes colors and not shapes. It is less distracting for an old geezer like me.
If you haven't tried CursorFX yet, you're missing out. Download the Trial today and give it a whirl!
Once upon a time I made a 'cursor' which was 2 lines...1 vertical and 1 horizontal as a 'cross' that could pan over the screen like crosshairs. Needless to say the 'cursor' had to be twice the size of the screen resolution in both axes, and was one massive drag on performance.... and that was probably when the screen res was 800x600 [XGA].
Systems these days are faster...but screen res is bigger...probably same drag.....
I use PowerToys "Mouse Pointer Crosshairs" quite frequently, which sounds like what you were trying to create.
I use different CursorFX themes from time to time but the one I use almost all the time and has been for twenty years now is Ghost by treetog (Pixtudio)
It wasn't a 'try'...I did do it...but simply dropped it due to its lag...
Found it.... made 2 months before Wincustomize was founded .... Jan, 2001 ...
Just downloaded and tried it out. Very nice indeed! I like the transparency.
Well now that is a smart idea, never thought of that.
One good (though not brief) thing MS did was "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key" with a large, animated circle around the cursor - a good thing on large desktops.
To enable the feature, go to the Mouse Properties setting under the Pointer Options tab...you can press the CTRL as many times as needed to find the little devil.
Shaking the mouse rapidly can also temporarily increase its size in W10 and W11.
According to the WinCustomize stats, more than 543 cursors were downloaded just yesterday, with well over a million all-time downloads. This shows how popular CursorFX is with the WC crowd.
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