How to Change Cursor Size, Icon and Color in Windows 11?

By default, Windows operating system uses, a small white arrow as a cursor image. This cursor image is used as mouse pointer or mouse cursor. There are many reasons, the default cursor may not work for you. In this article, we will explain on how to change mouse cursor in Windows 11 as per your convenient.

Changing Cursor Icon and Size

Below are some of the reasons, you may want to change the default cursor.

• You have a vision problem and it is inconvenient to see the small cursor.
• Default color does not match your theme and you want to change it.
• You want to use some stylish icon as your cursor image instead of a small white arrow.

Depending upon your need you can customize the cursor in Windows 11.

Customizing Cursor in Windows 11

Windows uses the following cursor types for various purposes:

Remember, text select is a cursor that appears when you hover the mouse over any text content in Word and other text processing apps like Notepad. However, this is different than the text cursor which shows as a blinking vertical line cursor.

Since the cursor will look different in different places, you have to change multiple settings and adjust the cursor to make it convenient for you.

• Change the default cursor size
• Increase the thickness to improve visibility
• Adjust the speed of cursor movement
• Make it easy to locate the cursor
• Change the color
• Change text selection cursor in Word and other text apps.

We will cover all the aspects in the following sections.

Related: How to change desktop icon spacing in Windows and Mac?

Customize Default Mouse Cursor

Windows offers multiple pointer schemes from which you can select the one or use custom icon as you like.

• Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings app and go to “Personalization > Themes” section. Alternatively, you can right click on the desktop, select “Personalize” option from the context menu and go to “Themes” section.

• “Themes” section will show your current theme details on the top and click on “Mouse Cursor” option.

• It will open “Mouse Properties” dialog box that will show you the details of current cursor icons used for various purposes under “Pointers” tab. For example, you can see the icons used for normal selection, help, busy, text selection, etc.

• Click on the “Scheme” dropdown and select different theme. You can preview the cursors for the selected theme.

• Click “Apply” button to change the mouse cursor in your computer.

Change Default Mouse Cursor Icon

The above option helps you to change the entire cursor scheme thus changing all cursor setup for different purposes. However, instead of doing this you may want to change only “Normal Select” cursor and keep all other cursors as they are. For this, simply double click on the cursor item you want to change or select the item and click on “Browse” button. It will open the “Cursors” folder in Windows 11  and you can search and use one of the available cursors. There will be .ani and .cur files in the “Cursors” folder indicating animated cursors (.ani) and normal cursor (.cur) files.

If you do not like any of the existing cursor icons, then you have to download cursor icons from third-party websites like RealWorld Graphics.

Upload the cursor icon under “C:\Windows\Cursors” folder and choose it as explained above to use as your mouse cursor. Do not afraid of playing around with the cursor icons, you can any time click on “Use Default” button to reset the scheme back and set as none.

Other Mouse Cursor Options

In addition to changing scheme and individual cursor, you can do customize few other things under “Pointer Options” tab.

• Change the movement speed of the cursor
• Display pointer trails from short to long
• Move the cursor automatically to the default button when opening dialog boxes
• Hide pointer while typing
• Show pointer location when pressing control key to easily locate the pointer on the screens

You can enable pointer shadow under “Pointers” tab.

Change Mouse Cursor Size

As you might have noticed, the above settings page does not have any options to change the size of the cursor. If you only want to increase the default cursor size then the above settings will be of no use. However, Windows 11 offers this function under different section.

• When you are in Windows Settings app, go to “Accessibility” section and select “Mouse pointer and touch” option.

• Under “Mouse pointer” section, you can change the cursor style and size. You can see white, black, inverted and custom cursor styles available for selection.

• Clicking on “Custom” option will show you the color palette to choose one of the available colors or choose your custom color by clicking on the + icon.

• If you are using touch screen, you can enable showing a circle when touching and make the circle big in size for better visibility.

Final Words

As usual, Microsoft scattered the options for customizing your cursor under different places. We hope you can follow the above instructions to change the mouse cursor in Windows 11 computer.