CursorFX officially released!
The successor to CursorXP
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Stardock is pleased to announce the official release of CursorFX. CursorFX is a free program that allows users to customize their mouse cursors in ways far beyond what Windows is capable of doing on its own.
The default Windows mouse cursor technology is the same today as it was in 1993 when Windows NT 3.1 was released. It lacks functionality and visual effects that are easily possible with any remotely modern PC.
CursorFX updates the Windows mouse cursor engine to support fluid animations, alpha blending, effects, real-time shadowing, user-action mouse states, mouse cursor resizing on the fly, color changing, trails, and much more.
CursorFX is a replacement to CursorXP which only ran on Windows XP. CursorFX runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista and includes dozens of new features and tweaks over CursorXP.
A gallery for CursorFX cursor themes is available on WinCustomize.com to download hundreds of free mouse cursors, trails, effects, and more.
CursorFX is a free program. A plus version is available for $19.95 that adds more features. To learn more and to download, visit www.cursorfx.com.
Screenshots:
![CFX_Main_Dialog[1]](https://draginol.stardock.net/images/CursorFXLaunchScreenshots_E4F7/CFX_Main_Dialog1.png)
![CFX_Settings_Shadow_Dialog[1]](https://draginol.stardock.net/images/CursorFXLaunchScreenshots_E4F7/CFX_Settings_Shadow_Dialog1.png)
Download: www.cursorfx.com
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LightStar
Reply #82 Thursday, February 7, 2008 8:43 PM
OK, I will try to explain it a little more Alberto. I create 32 x 32 PNG's and make cursors out of them using Microangelo Toolset 6. I then create a cursor theme for use with one of Stardock's competitors products that I also design themes for, and apply them with that product.
I would then open CursorXP and go to create a new theme. When I did that it would automatically come up with the currently applied cursor sets images and the X,Y coordinates already set. Granted, I would have to re-import the PNG's because the cursors were messed up a little regarding transparency, but I would not have to worry about setting the X,Y coordinates again.
In CursorFX, it is very difficult to set the X,Y coordinates. Sure you can do it by moving the little crosshair in the window, but it can be really tough to align correctly on such a small preview area. It would also be better if you could scroll those values up and down in their respective fields in CursorFX rather than having to type in the coordinates to align crosshair. Maybe I am missing something, but I guess my main concern is that the crosshair is difficult to align for instance to the exact location on the cursor itself, very difficult.
Reply #82 Thursday, February 7, 2008 8:43 PM
LightStar: I don't understand your post about the editor.
OK, I will try to explain it a little more Alberto. I create 32 x 32 PNG's and make cursors out of them using Microangelo Toolset 6. I then create a cursor theme for use with one of Stardock's competitors products that I also design themes for, and apply them with that product.
I would then open CursorXP and go to create a new theme. When I did that it would automatically come up with the currently applied cursor sets images and the X,Y coordinates already set. Granted, I would have to re-import the PNG's because the cursors were messed up a little regarding transparency, but I would not have to worry about setting the X,Y coordinates again.
In CursorFX, it is very difficult to set the X,Y coordinates. Sure you can do it by moving the little crosshair in the window, but it can be really tough to align correctly on such a small preview area. It would also be better if you could scroll those values up and down in their respective fields in CursorFX rather than having to type in the coordinates to align crosshair. Maybe I am missing something, but I guess my main concern is that the crosshair is difficult to align for instance to the exact location on the cursor itself, very difficult.
Bebi Bulma
Reply #83 Thursday, February 7, 2008 9:04 PM
Does this include the fiasco of not automatically moving over previously installed CursorXP themes? From what I'm reading and what I've been told by people using it...that should have been one of the first things in the "this needs to be in the release" list. All these problem reports is making me want to steer clear for a while until everything is all sorted out.
Reply #83 Thursday, February 7, 2008 9:04 PM
We fixed most of the reported problems internally. Pretty much all connected to the file association bug. We will refresh the public distribution today or tomorrow.
Does this include the fiasco of not automatically moving over previously installed CursorXP themes? From what I'm reading and what I've been told by people using it...that should have been one of the first things in the "this needs to be in the release" list. All these problem reports is making me want to steer clear for a while until everything is all sorted out.
Darkrider
Reply #85 Friday, February 8, 2008 6:17 AM
Reply #85 Friday, February 8, 2008 6:17 AM
Spent some time with CursorFX Plus, trying to figure out how to get downloaded themes to work/install on XP Pro SP2. CursorFX was installed for all users, double clicking did not work, right click open with program did not work. I tried cursorxp themes as well as cursorfx themes.
CursorFX Plus was installed from Stardock Central.
The only way I got them to work was copy and paste the downloaded themes uncompressed in "All Users -> Shared Documents -> Stardock -> CursorFX -> Themes.
Version of CursorFX Plus 2.00.002
CursorFX Plus was installed from Stardock Central.
The only way I got them to work was copy and paste the downloaded themes uncompressed in "All Users -> Shared Documents -> Stardock -> CursorFX -> Themes.
Version of CursorFX Plus 2.00.002
LightStar
Reply #86 Friday, February 8, 2008 8:52 AM
Reply #86 Friday, February 8, 2008 8:52 AM
One more thing, there was the ability in CursorXP to temporarily disable it completely, can that be added to CursorFX?
fontinalis
Reply #87 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:23 AM
Reply #87 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:23 AM
I want to try the free version again after the push with the fixes Alberto. When are you guys pushing it out today? Also, has anyone seen the problem I posted in #70 above?
mjbisme
Reply #88 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:35 AM
This could be related to my ongoing issue of having a lot of cursors available. Besides being extremely slow to load, with a lot of cursors the Control Panel will go transparent when you click anywhere within it. Or the program will simply crash. I applied the latest update today, but once again there is no resolution. I am still waiting for support to advise on this problem. The only solution so far is to not have very many cursors in the Themes folder.
Reply #88 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:35 AM
Bugaroo??? - CursorFX main window goes transparent when CFX app border is clicked anywhere (top, bottom, L/R side of the window. Results in a transparent CFX window with whatever background visible where the CFX app window was previously displayed (i.e., my browser, desktop, etc...)
This could be related to my ongoing issue of having a lot of cursors available. Besides being extremely slow to load, with a lot of cursors the Control Panel will go transparent when you click anywhere within it. Or the program will simply crash. I applied the latest update today, but once again there is no resolution. I am still waiting for support to advise on this problem. The only solution so far is to not have very many cursors in the Themes folder.
fontinalis
Reply #89 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:54 AM
Reply #89 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:54 AM
Hi mjbisme. I downloaded the free version of CFX again and the transparency issue still happens with only the CFX 39 cursor themes that come with it located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Stardock\CursorFX\Themes
I didn't even move my old CXP cursors into the CFX theme folder.
I had 52 CXP cursor themes in my CXP theme folder here:
C:\Program Files\CursorXP\Themes
...and it never went transparent on me. CXP works great but I just wanted to upgrade to the new CFX for kicks.
BTW, when I run CFX the cursors work and I can use old CXP cursors like Harmony okay. It's just annoying that the CFX interface wigs out on me when I want to change cursors. I guess I can keep using it as long as I don't click on the title bar or borders. Hope this transparency thing gets fixed in the future.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Stardock\CursorFX\Themes
I didn't even move my old CXP cursors into the CFX theme folder.
I had 52 CXP cursor themes in my CXP theme folder here:
C:\Program Files\CursorXP\Themes
...and it never went transparent on me. CXP works great but I just wanted to upgrade to the new CFX for kicks.
BTW, when I run CFX the cursors work and I can use old CXP cursors like Harmony okay. It's just annoying that the CFX interface wigs out on me when I want to change cursors. I guess I can keep using it as long as I don't click on the title bar or borders. Hope this transparency thing gets fixed in the future.
mjbisme
Reply #90 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:04 PM
Same here, and to support Stardock for all the goodies over the years. I have the Plus version, but it still crashes with the latest version. I just want all the cursors I've downloaded over the years to be available.
Reply #90 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:04 PM
...and it never went transparent on me. CXP works great but I just wanted to upgrade to the new CFX for kicks
Same here, and to support Stardock for all the goodies over the years. I have the Plus version, but it still crashes with the latest version. I just want all the cursors I've downloaded over the years to be available.
Philly0381
Reply #91 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:10 PM
Reply #91 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:10 PM
First off, one two many posts dealing with CFX, I'm getting confused.
The new update, at least for me, has cleared up the downloading issue. Transparency also is working as is all the other effects. I have the Plus version running on an XP system.
The new update, at least for me, has cleared up the downloading issue. Transparency also is working as is all the other effects. I have the Plus version running on an XP system.
Jeff T
Reply #92 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:25 PM
The latest update (2.00.004) cleared this up for me.
XP SP2 CursorFX Plus.
Reply #92 Friday, February 8, 2008 12:25 PM
Bugaroo??? - CursorFX main window goes transparent when CFX app border is clicked anywhere (top, bottom, L/R side of the window. Results in a transparent CFX window with whatever background visible where the CFX app window was previously displayed (i.e., my browser, desktop, etc...)
The latest update (2.00.004) cleared this up for me.
XP SP2 CursorFX Plus.
fontinalis
Reply #93 Friday, February 8, 2008 1:30 PM
Reply #93 Friday, February 8, 2008 1:30 PM
Sorry about all the these goldarned posts on CFX Philly. I just bought the CFXPlus, did a clean uninstall/reinstall via SDC and all is well. No more transparent window when dragging the app around, downloads are redirected to the proper folder, dbl clicking on themes in folders resets works too. However, the new popup warnings are soooo MS though. Of course I want to use this theme. That's why I double clicked it.
I did find one bug with the new version though. If you use the Show Desktop button on WinXP SP2 quick launch bar, all your apps go to the task bar right. Now move the cursor to the desktop and it reverts to being displayed as the default windows cursor. If you run your cursor over the task bar, or maximize another app, it displays as the cursor you have loaded in CFX.
Anyone using the quick launch bar, show desktop button, chegidout and lemme know if you can reproduce it. I'll pop a ticket in anyhow. It's been a fun morning for CFX no?
Cheers,
f
I did find one bug with the new version though. If you use the Show Desktop button on WinXP SP2 quick launch bar, all your apps go to the task bar right. Now move the cursor to the desktop and it reverts to being displayed as the default windows cursor. If you run your cursor over the task bar, or maximize another app, it displays as the cursor you have loaded in CFX.
Anyone using the quick launch bar, show desktop button, chegidout and lemme know if you can reproduce it. I'll pop a ticket in anyhow. It's been a fun morning for CFX no?
Cheers,
f
Karin Deter
Reply #94 Friday, February 8, 2008 1:46 PM
Reply #94 Friday, February 8, 2008 1:46 PM
I will return to CXP & CXP-Plus. The free download of FX lacks the mirror-effect, one of the main reasons for me to use the programm.
Emmy1960
Emmy1960
Alberto
Reply #95 Friday, February 8, 2008 5:06 PM
The mirror option has always been Plus only IIRC, same is for CFX.
Reply #95 Friday, February 8, 2008 5:06 PM
I will return to CXP & CXP-Plus. The free download of FX lacks the mirror-effect, one of the main reasons for me to use the programm.
Emmy1960
Emmy1960
The mirror option has always been Plus only IIRC, same is for CFX.
Daiwa
Reply #96 Friday, February 8, 2008 5:38 PM
LightStar - Ctrl-Shift-C still works to toggle CFX on/off.
Alberto -
The problem with the default windows pointer appearing when hovering the cursor over certain system buttons and items in dropdown lists remains in the .004 version (XPP SP2). This is in apps where this was not occurring with CXP. Still can't get PrtSc to capture it, I'm afraid. PrtSc will capture the CFX cursor image, but not the Windows default pointer when it shows up for some reason. FWIW, the default pointer shows up as soon as you call up the domain ShutDown dialog now - the CXP cursor remained active until after that dialog before.
Reply #96 Friday, February 8, 2008 5:38 PM
One more thing, there was the ability in CursorXP to temporarily disable it completely, can that be added to CursorFX?
LightStar - Ctrl-Shift-C still works to toggle CFX on/off.
Alberto -
The problem with the default windows pointer appearing when hovering the cursor over certain system buttons and items in dropdown lists remains in the .004 version (XPP SP2). This is in apps where this was not occurring with CXP. Still can't get PrtSc to capture it, I'm afraid. PrtSc will capture the CFX cursor image, but not the Windows default pointer when it shows up for some reason. FWIW, the default pointer shows up as soon as you call up the domain ShutDown dialog now - the CXP cursor remained active until after that dialog before.
aufisch
Reply #97 Saturday, February 9, 2008 12:23 AM
Reply #97 Saturday, February 9, 2008 12:23 AM
I can meanwhile confirm the bug found by mjbisme.
When moving more than 200 cursors into the CursorFX-folder, the CursorFX panel becomes unresponsive (I don't have CursorFX crashing on me, but I still can't do anything with it).
CursorXP did not have that problem.
When opening Task-Manager, the CursorFX panel shows a CPU use of about 53% and the Memory use is not that high either. The rest of the system stays responsive and works normally.
This bug was found on both 2.00.002 and 2.00.004. (plus-Versions)
Will this be addressed in a future release?
When moving more than 200 cursors into the CursorFX-folder, the CursorFX panel becomes unresponsive (I don't have CursorFX crashing on me, but I still can't do anything with it).
CursorXP did not have that problem.
When opening Task-Manager, the CursorFX panel shows a CPU use of about 53% and the Memory use is not that high either. The rest of the system stays responsive and works normally.
This bug was found on both 2.00.002 and 2.00.004. (plus-Versions)
Will this be addressed in a future release?
fontinalis
Reply #98 Saturday, February 9, 2008 1:09 AM
Reply #98 Saturday, February 9, 2008 1:09 AM
Man this is fun watching the boards go crazy when buggy code is put out. SD will fix it. They always do. Right?
I agree aufisch, CFX loads friggin slow and I only have 66 cursors loaded. The CursorFX Control Panel is a hog too! Right now it's using 26,656k RAM, 91,388k VM, 33 Handles (ok), 14 User Obj (ok) but it sucks up 1,124 GDI Objects! The only other hog that can beat this is iTunes 7.
Want some more fun? Double click on the LightRing cursor, open task manager and check out this memory hog. LightRing is sucking 14,880k right now, and just as high on VM; and %cpu skyrockets with effects when moving the cursor around. Try using the smoke trails and your cpu may fly right off your desk.
I got CFX to totally lock up my XPSP2 system by going through the cursors and trying them on for size. Occasionally, when switching cursors a popup warning comes up saying "do you want to override the current theme's on click effects?" Clicked on Yes a couple of times, then clicked on No another time and WHAM the whole machine locked up. Ctl,Alt,Del wouldn't even work. Had to do a hard reboot.
Anyway, all this messing with CFX has made for a fun day.
It's been much more fun than studying Organic Chemistry anyhow, so keep the code a commin. You build it, we buy it, we break it, you fix it. Isn't that how the software world is supposed to work?
Have a good night 'yall.
I agree aufisch, CFX loads friggin slow and I only have 66 cursors loaded. The CursorFX Control Panel is a hog too! Right now it's using 26,656k RAM, 91,388k VM, 33 Handles (ok), 14 User Obj (ok) but it sucks up 1,124 GDI Objects! The only other hog that can beat this is iTunes 7.
Want some more fun? Double click on the LightRing cursor, open task manager and check out this memory hog. LightRing is sucking 14,880k right now, and just as high on VM; and %cpu skyrockets with effects when moving the cursor around. Try using the smoke trails and your cpu may fly right off your desk.
I got CFX to totally lock up my XPSP2 system by going through the cursors and trying them on for size. Occasionally, when switching cursors a popup warning comes up saying "do you want to override the current theme's on click effects?" Clicked on Yes a couple of times, then clicked on No another time and WHAM the whole machine locked up. Ctl,Alt,Del wouldn't even work. Had to do a hard reboot.
Anyway, all this messing with CFX has made for a fun day.
It's been much more fun than studying Organic Chemistry anyhow, so keep the code a commin. You build it, we buy it, we break it, you fix it. Isn't that how the software world is supposed to work? Have a good night 'yall.
mjbisme
Reply #99 Saturday, February 9, 2008 11:45 AM
Thanks aufisch. I'm glad to see someone else experiencing the problem.
Perhaps I used the term crash incorrectly here. The Control Panel does simply freeze and become unresponsize. The chosen cursor is still working and I can load a new one by double clicking a theme in the Themes folder, but the CursorFX Control Panel does not function - so crashed, frozen, unresponsive, but it doesn't work.
Reply #99 Saturday, February 9, 2008 11:45 AM
I can meanwhile confirm the bug found by mjbisme
Thanks aufisch. I'm glad to see someone else experiencing the problem.
When moving more than 200 cursors into the CursorFX-folder, the CursorFX panel becomes unresponsive (I don't have CursorFX crashing on me, but I still can't do anything with it).
Perhaps I used the term crash incorrectly here. The Control Panel does simply freeze and become unresponsize. The chosen cursor is still working and I can load a new one by double clicking a theme in the Themes folder, but the CursorFX Control Panel does not function - so crashed, frozen, unresponsive, but it doesn't work.
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Reply #81 Thursday, February 7, 2008 6:10 PM
LightStar: I don't understand your post about the editor. The CursorFX editor is like a gazilion times better than the CursorXP one. It can import CursorXP and CursorFX themes just fine, can boundle effects and trails into a single .CursorFX theme, features visual hot spot setup, it features new script features, it can easily copy and paste single cursors across themes, etc etc etc.
By the way.. keep up with posting languages. We've already got:
- English
- Italian
- Polish
- French
- Japanese