When you try to change mouse pointers scheme, you may receive a string of error messages indicating that the mouse pointer cursor files are missing or corrupted. This happens if some or all of the *.CUR or *.ANI files are missing in the Windows\Cursors folder. Totally 184 (*.cur and *.ani) cursor files ship with Windows XP by default, and are available in compressed format in the Windows XP CD-ROM.

To extract ALL the *.cur and *.ani files, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM in the drive and type these lines in the Command Prompt:

Expand X:\i386\*.CU_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Expand X:\i386\*.AN_ -r C:\Windows\Cursors

Note:

* Where X:\ is the CD-ROM drive-letter
* _ is not a space, but an explicit “Underscore”

Change the target path if Windows is installed in a different folder/drive. Now all the mouse pointer / icons should be restored. Alternately, you can download ALL the cursor files from here (65 Kb). Unzip and extract the files to your Windows\Cursors folder.