Cursors

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A cursor is a small picture whose location on the screen is controlled by a pointing device, such as a mouse, pen, or trackball. In the remainder of this overview, the term mouse refers to any pointing device.

When the user moves the mouse, the system moves the cursor accordingly. The cursor functions enable applications to create, load, display, animate, move, confine, and destroy cursors.

In This Section

Name Description
About Cursors Discusses the standard cursors.
Using Cursors Discusses how to perform tasks related to cursors.
Cursor Reference Contains the API reference.

Cursor Functions

Name Description
ClipCursor Confines the cursor to a rectangular area on the screen. If a subsequent cursor position (set by the SetCursorPos function or the mouse) lies outside the rectangle, the system automatically adjusts the position to keep the cursor inside the rectangular area.
CopyCursor Copies the specified cursor.
CreateCursor Creates a cursor having the specified size, bit patterns, and hot spot.
DestroyCursor Destroys a cursor and frees any memory the cursor occupied. Do not use this function to destroy a shared cursor.
GetClipCursor Retrieves the screen coordinates of the rectangular area to which the cursor is confined.
GetCursor Retrieves a handle to the current cursor.
GetCursorInfo Retrieves information about the global cursor.
GetCursorPos Retrieves the cursor's position, in screen coordinates.
GetPhysicalCursorPos Retrieves the position of the cursor in physical coordinates.
LoadCursor Loads the specified cursor resource from the executable (.EXE) file associated with an application instance.
LoadCursorFromFile Creates a cursor based on data contained in a file.
SetCursor Sets the cursor shape.
SetCursorPos Moves the cursor to the specified screen coordinates. If the new coordinates are not within the screen rectangle set by the most recent ClipCursor function call, the system automatically adjusts the coordinates so that the cursor stays within the rectangle.
SetPhysicalCursorPos Sets the position of the cursor in physical coordinates.
SetSystemCursor Enables an application to customize the system cursors. It replaces the contents of the system cursor specified by the id parameter with the contents of the cursor specified by the hcur parameter and then destroys hcur.
ShowCursor Displays or hides the cursor.

Cursor Notifications

Name Description
WM_SETCURSOR Sent to a window if the mouse causes the cursor to move within a window and mouse input is not captured.

Cursor Structures

Name Description
CURSORINFO Contains global cursor information.