Cursors

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.