Page 282 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

cursor (which means, “Wait; I’m thinking,” or “Wait; I’ve

crashed”), the I-beam cursor (which appears when you’re editing
text), the little pointing-finger hand that appears when you point to
a web link, and so on.

All these cursors come prepackaged into design-coordinated sets

called schemes. To look over the cursor shapes in a different
scheme, use the Scheme drop-down list; the corresponding pointer
collection appears in the Customize list box. The ones whose

names include “large” or “extra large” offer jumbo, magnified
cursors ideal for very large screens or failing eyesight. When you

find one that seems like an improvement over the factory-setting
set, click OK.

Select individual pointers. You don’t have to change to a

completely different scheme; you can also replace just one cursor.
To do so, click the pointer you want to change, and then click the
Browse button. You’re shown the vast array of cursor-replacement

icons (which are in the Local Disk (C:) Windows Cursors
folder). Click one to see what it looks like; double-click to select it.

Create your own pointer scheme. Once you’ve replaced a cursor
shape, you’ve also changed the scheme to which it belongs. At this
point, either click OK to activate your change and get back to

work, or save the new, improved scheme under its own name, so
you can switch back to the original when nostalgia calls. To do so,
click the Save As button, name the scheme, and then click OK.

Tip

The “Enable pointer shadow” checkbox at the bottom of this tab is pretty neat. It casts a shadow
on whatever’s beneath the cursor, as though it’s skimming just above the surface of your screen.

Clicking the Pointer Options tab offers a few more cursor-related functions

(Figure 4-6, bottom):