Make Your Mouse Pointers Left-hand Friendly
- by Matthew Guay
It’s a right-centric world, with everything from pencils to computer mice expecting you to be right-handed. Here’s how you can train your mouse and cursors in Windows 7 and Vista to respect your left-handedness.
Using your Left Hand the Right Way
It’s easy to switch your mouse to left-handed mode. Enter “mouse” in your Start menu search, and select the first entry.
Check the “Switch primary and secondary buttons” box to make your mouse more left-hand friendly. Now your primary select button is your right button, and the secondary button (commonly referred to as right-click) is the left button.
But, it can still be awkward to select items on screen with your left hand using the default cursors. MSDN has a free set of cursors designed for left-handed users, that can fix this problem for you. These cursors are exactly like the default Aero cursors in Windows 7 and Vista, except they are reversed to make them better for left-handed use.
The cursors are available in 3 sizes: normal, large, and extra large. The normal ones are the same size as the default ones in Windows 7; feel free to choose the other sizes if you prefer them. Click each link to download all 6 cursors for your size (link below).
Click “I Agree” after selecting the cursors to accept the license agreement and download them.
Once you have all 6 cursors downloaded, select the Pointers tab in the Mouse Properties dialog. Click the cursor to change, and then click Browse to select the new cursor.
Browse to the folder you downloaded your new cursors to, select the correct cursor, and click Open.
Do this for each of the 6 cursors to be changed. Strangely, the Busy cursor (the spinning blue orb) is a static cursor, so you may not wish to change it. All the other ones look and act like their standard counterparts.
Here’s the cursors to be changed, and their equivalents in the default cursors:
Normal Select:
aero_arrow_left.cur
Help Select:
aero_helpsel_left.cur
Working in Background:
aero_working_left.ani
Busy:
aero_busy_left.cur
Handwriting:
aero_pen_left.cur
Link Select:
aero_link_left.cur
After changing all the cursors, click Save As… to save this mouse scheme so you can easily select it in the future. Finally click Ok to close the Mouse Properties dialog and accept the changes.
Now your pointers will be easier to use left-handed!
Conclusion
Whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, you can enjoy the Aero cursors in Windows 7 or Vista in the way that works best for you. Unfortunately, many mice are still designed for right-handed people, but this trick will help you make the best out of your mouse.
We included all of the 6 cursors for you in a zip file you can download Here. This will make it easier for you to get them all together without having to download them individually.
Link
Download Left-Handed Mouse Pointers from MSDN
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