random accessibility question

[cellio]

On Windows XP (probably up to date), does anyone know of a way to make the mouse cursor bigger? I had to set the resolution on this laptop above my preferred 1024x768 because that resolution absolutely sucked on this display, and then tell Windows to use extra-large fonts and twiddle my applications. (Mozilla's minimum font size is now 20, to give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem.) But this means that everything graphical is still down at its "normal" size (per the resolution). I can live with not being able to see images well for a week; it's not like I'm doing much browsing or graphics manipulation, after all. But the mouse cursor is also a graphic image, and that I care about.

I've already found the accessibility option for "tell me where the cursor is on demand" (it animates), but if I could make the mouse cursor itself bigger, or bright red (inverse-video would be better but hard, I imagine), or something, that'd be really helpful.

With the way technology is advancing, I'm guessing I'll never be able to reasonably buy a laptop of my own because of stuff like this. When a resolution I can actually see is considered non-native because it's "too low", I'm in trouble. (Yes I did try 800x600 too. No dice; it looked as bad as 1024x768. And there's nothing between the two..)

Update: Problem solved. Thanks everyone!

Comments

[geekosaur]

In the Mouse control panel you can select alternative mouse cursor sets; most are animated fluff, but IIRC there are two large-image sets. You can also load additonal sets, so you might want to search e.g. Tucows for mouse cursor sets.

[cellio]

Thank you! I missed that tab entirely (system dialogue boxes are not honoring the extra-large-fonts setting). "Magnified" seems to do the trick nicely.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

And if you change those, you might want to set your preferences with the larger cursors as a named theme, so if windows burps and forgets your settings you just need to click one button to get it back (that's right click on desktop to get the properties thing up, themes tab, click save as, give it a name for future reference - you knew that, I know :) ). The number of times Norton crashes on me and then somehow manages to turn all my visual prefs, like colours, cursors, background etc back to default is ridiculous!

[cellio]

Thanks! I actually didn't know about saving themes; good idea. (In my normal environment I do all my customizing through monitor settings, not software, so it hasn't come up.)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

You can also adjust the blink rate and width of a cursor through accessibility options, apparently.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/accessibility/blinkrate.mspx

[cellio]

Thanks!

[dmk.livejournal.com]

Two more options for making the pointer more visible are available via Mouse Properties (Control Panel ==> Mouse ==> Pointer Options):

• Display Pointer Trails: Useful when the display is slow in updating the position of the pointer; mouse leaves a fading trail behind it.
• Show Location of Pointer: Useful when the contrast on the display is insufficient; shows an animated target closing in on the pointer.

[cellio]

Thanks!