If the desktop wallpapers to download are easy to find (also because you can use your own photos), it can be different if you wanted to customize windows with a cursor with a different graphic . The cursor is the mouse pointer, the white oblique arrow that moves and becomes an hourglass, a rod or another drawing, depending on what is done on the computer.
Changing the cursor on Windows is quite easy, just press the right button on the desktop, go to " Personalize " and then clicking on the " change mouse pointers " link.
In Windows 10 instead you have to go to the Control Panel and then Mouse, to the Pointers tab.
From the pointer graphics tab, you can scroll through a drop-down menu to choose one of the predefined ones which, as you will see, are all a bit similar.
To find different pointers there are some websites that allow you to download them for free and add them to the list of selectable ones.
READ ALSO: How to enlarge the mouse cursor and enlarge it on Windows
One of these sites is Totally Free Cursors which stands out for being safe and clean, without those terrible advertisements of smileys and smileys.
On this site there is a large collection of cursors, organized by categories, popularity and publication time.
All pointers can be downloaded for free for use on the computer.
There are also cursors to use for your MySpace.
However, if you wanted to have a more personalized graphic, you could use two programs that allow not only to obtain high quality mouse pointers but also to create new ones, using your own images.
1) The most popular Windows tool for changing mouse pointer graphics is CursorFX which works on Windows 10, Windows 7 and 8.1.
Cursor FX can be downloaded from Download.com with 13 pre-set cursors only to choose from.
The installation is classic and without offers of promotional tools.
Once you open the program you can immediately choose a pointer theme that you can use freely, even without having to keep CursorFX running in the background.
If you click on the magnifying glass icon, you can view the additional icons, for example, to replace the hourglass when the computer is busy or the double arrow that appears when scrolling a web page or a document.
You can also customize each theme with the integrated editor by clicking on the pencil icon.
The editor to draw a new arrow is very intuitive and simple to use.
New cursors can also be created using images from the PNG file format by going to the File> New menu or, from the main window, clicking on New Package and then on Import Graphics .
The images can be imported in their original size, then in the editor, you can choose the part of the image you want to use as a pointer.
To save and apply the new cursor graphics, you have to press the key combination Ctrl-E.
This time, even if CursorFX can be closed, it remains in the background, and if you end it from the task manager, it completely disappears the cursor and the arrow is no longer on the desktop.
If you want to stop using or uninstalling the program, you should first go back to the Windows desktop personalization screen (by right clicking on the background) and put the old original pointer back.
I can assure you that CursorFX consumes very little memory, about 2 MB but it is obvious that, on PCs with little RAM, this could become an unsustainable luxury.
2) Another program to create new mouse pointers is RealWorld Cursor Editor .
Once the program has started, you can choose whether to create a new cursor from scratch or to make a cursor using an image that, this time, can have a PNG, JPG and BMP format.
What makes this program different from CursorFX is that it offers a more advanced (and more difficult) editor for drawing pointers, with a color palette and tools very similar to those of a graphics program like Gimp.
To create the cursor from scratch, the first time, it would be preferable to follow the online tutorial by clicking on the large button on the left.
In RealWorld there is a complete set of drawing tools: pencil, line, curve, rectangle, shapes, color fill, text, shadows, brightness, contrast, range, transparency and so on.
You also have a test area to test the new cursor and you can also create animated pointers, frame by frame.
Easier, however, is to create the cursor from an image file that you have on your computer and which can also be a photo.
The selected image, unlike CursorFX, is automatically reduced to a size of 32x32, so there is no need to choose which part to use.
On the right sidebar, you can see the imported image, above which insert the arrow which, typically, is placed at the top left.
You can also increase the size of the cursor.
In the end, you can save the new pointer either as a static (.cur file) or as an animated cursor (.ani).
In order to use it, you must choose it in the mouse properties or you can try it by pressing, from RealWorld, Cursor> Use current for> Normal Select.
3) A third program to create the mouse cursor is Edit Cursor Online which is a web application that can be used without downloading anything.
As for the PNG image files to be imported into both programs, it would be better to use images suitable to become cursors to customize the graphics of the mouse pointer.
Sites like FindIcons, Iconspedia or IconsSearch can be enough to have a wide choice of graphic themes of cursors to download for free .
In another article, I remember, how to create and download icons for the desktop .
To do it first, you can download pointers and cursors to be installed on Windows customized by professional and free graphics.
