Is there an app for the PC that will make your mouse -- inside applications -- look more noticable?

September 7, 2004 2:45 PM

I teach computer classes. Most of my classes are taught on PCs, but there's a Mac classroom next door. I was watching that class throught the window, and I noticed that there was a bright red halo around the intructor's mouse pointer. I would LOVE to teach this way, because many students have trouble seeing -- when my PC is projected on a screen -- where my mouse is pointing. So here's my question: is there an app for the PC that will make your mouse -- inside applications -- look more noticable? I'd rather not make the mouse bigger, but something like a halo or ring would be awesome.
posted by grumblebee to computers & internet (6 answers total)

Maybe it's a custom cursor? If the white mouse pointer is a problem try the inverted colour mouse pointers, not the black one, it inverts the background colour to be make it more visible.
posted by riffola at 3:00 PM on September 7, 2004

My MS optical mouse came with some software that had all kinds of annoying options, but even just the mouse settings in the control panel let you choose different cursors. If you browse under the Pointers tab, it shows you some animated cursors. (The walking dinosaur could really come in handy for a class of 10 year olds, athough they might be annoyed by the scientific inaccuracy of the depiction.)
posted by caitlinb at 3:04 PM on September 7, 2004

riff, it's more than just a custom cursor, It's called pinpoint.

Grumblebee, that and the dynamic zoom feature of universal access are the two things I miss most when I'm teaching on a PC (vs a mac)
posted by filmgeek at 3:05 PM on September 7, 2004

see control panel, mouse, mouse properties for ways of making your mouse more noticable. Mouse cursors can also be edited they're in "%windir%\cursors", and using a cursor editing program, you could easily add your own red border.
posted by seanyboy at 3:09 PM on September 7, 2004

In the mouse options for MS Intellimouse is a "Show location of pointer when I hit CTRL key" which you might find useful. If you have a microsoft mouse, that is.
posted by malphigian at 11:58 PM on September 7, 2004

You can download a freeware app called CursorXP from Stardock. There's also a payware version. It lets you use flashier mouse cursors, and there's lots of people putting them together. There's a library of cursors at Wincustomize.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 12:09 AM on September 8, 2004