ARCHIVED: In Windows 95, 98, and Me, why can't I get animated cursors to work?

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Note: UITS recommends that you use a current version of Windows on computers connected to the Indiana University network; see Recommended Windows operating systems at IU.

According to the Microsoft knowledge base, your hardware and software must satisfy two requirements before you can use animated cursors.

The first is that you must use "protected mode" disk drivers. If, for some reason, you are using Ontrack's Disk Manager or similar DOS-based disk drivers, you cannot use animated cursors. Most disk driver software was written for the purpose of allowing DOS to access hard drives larger than 504MB in size. Windows 95, 98, and Me do not have this limitation, so these drivers are unnecessary in most cases.

You can find out whether you are running protected mode disk drivers by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, and then choosing the Performance page. The "File System" entry should be 32 bit if you are running the protected mode driver.

The second requirement is that you must use a Windows display driver that uses the "DIB" specification, and either displays 256 colors, or allows Windows to access video memory in a linear manner, e.g., through a frame buffer. Microsoft lists a number of video cards that can't support animated cursors:

ATI Ultra (mach8)
Diamond Viper
Standard Display Adapter (VGA)
Super VGA

Boot sector viruses can also prevent animated cursors from working. If all of the other requirements are met, and you still can't get animated cursors to function, scan your hard drive to make sure it's not infected.

For more information, see article 123334 in the Microsoft knowledge base.

Search Microsoft Support.