Creating a Cursor

The following example creates two cursor handles: one for the standard hourglass cursor and one for a custom cursor included as a resource in the application's resource-definition file.

HINSTANCE hinst;            // handle to current instance 
HCURSOR hCurs1, hCurs2;     // cursor handles 
 
// Create a standard hourglass cursor. 
 
hCurs1 = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_WAIT); 
 
// Create a custom cursor based on a resource. 
 
hCurs2 = LoadCursor(hinst, MAKEINTRESOURCE(240)); 
 

You should implement custom cursors as resources. Rather than create the cursors at run time, use the LoadCursor, LoadCursorFromFile, or LoadImage function to avoid device dependence, to simplify localization, and to enable applications to share cursor designs.

The following example uses the CreateCursor function to create a custom cursor at run time. The example is included here to illustrate how the system interprets cursor bitmasks.

HINSTANCE hinst;            // handle to current instance  
HCURSOR hCurs1, hCurs2;     // cursor handles 
 
HCURSOR hCurs3;             // cursor handle 
 
// Yin cursor AND bitmask 
 
BYTE ANDmaskCursor[] = 
{ 
    0xFF, 0xFC, 0x3F, 0xFF,   // line 1 
    0xFF, 0xC0, 0x1F, 0xFF,   // line 2 
    0xFF, 0x00, 0x3F, 0xFF,   // line 3 
    0xFE, 0x00, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 4 
 
    0xF7, 0x01, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 5 
    0xF0, 0x03, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 6 
    0xF0, 0x03, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 7 
    0xE0, 0x07, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 8 
 
    0xC0, 0x07, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 9 
    0xC0, 0x0F, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 10 
    0x80, 0x0F, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 11 
    0x80, 0x0F, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 12 
 
    0x80, 0x07, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 13 
    0x00, 0x07, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 14 
    0x00, 0x03, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 15 
    0x00, 0x00, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 16 
 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x7F, 0xFF,   // line 17 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x1F, 0xFF,   // line 18 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x0F, 0xFF,   // line 19 
    0x80, 0x00, 0x0F, 0xFF,   // line 20 
 
    0x80, 0x00, 0x07, 0xFF,   // line 21 
    0x80, 0x00, 0x07, 0xFF,   // line 22 
    0xC0, 0x00, 0x07, 0xFF,   // line 23 
    0xC0, 0x00, 0x0F, 0xFF,   // line 24 
 
    0xE0, 0x00, 0x0F, 0xFF,   // line 25 
    0xF0, 0x00, 0x1F, 0xFF,   // line 26 
    0xF0, 0x00, 0x1F, 0xFF,   // line 27 
    0xF8, 0x00, 0x3F, 0xFF,   // line 28 
 
    0xFE, 0x00, 0x7F, 0xFF,   // line 29 
    0xFF, 0x00, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 30 
    0xFF, 0xC3, 0xFF, 0xFF,   // line 31 
    0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF    // line 32 
};
 
// Yin cursor XOR bitmask 
 
BYTE XORmaskCursor[] = 
{ 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 1 
    0x00, 0x03, 0xC0, 0x00,   // line 2 
    0x00, 0x3F, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 3 
    0x00, 0xFE, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 4 
 
    0x0E, 0xFC, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 5 
    0x07, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 6 
    0x07, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 7 
    0x0F, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 8 
 
    0x1F, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 9 
    0x1F, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 10 
    0x3F, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 11 
    0x3F, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 12 
 
    0x3F, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 13 
    0x7F, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 14 
    0x7F, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 15 
    0x7F, 0xFC, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 16 
 
    0x7F, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 17 
    0x7F, 0xFF, 0x80, 0x00,   // line 18 
    0x7F, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00,   // line 19 
    0x3F, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00,   // line 20 
 
    0x3F, 0xC7, 0xF0, 0x00,   // line 21 
    0x3F, 0x83, 0xF0, 0x00,   // line 22 
    0x1F, 0x83, 0xF0, 0x00,   // line 23 
    0x1F, 0x83, 0xE0, 0x00,   // line 24 
 
    0x0F, 0xC7, 0xE0, 0x00,   // line 25 
    0x07, 0xFF, 0xC0, 0x00,   // line 26 
    0x07, 0xFF, 0xC0, 0x00,   // line 27 
    0x01, 0xFF, 0x80, 0x00,   // line 28 
 
    0x00, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 29 
    0x00, 0x3C, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 30 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,   // line 31 
    0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00    // line 32 
};
 
// Create a custom cursor at run time. 
 
hCurs3 = CreateCursor( hinst,   // app instance 
             19,                // horizontal position of hot spot 
             2,                 // vertical position of hot spot 
             32,                // cursor width 
             32,                // cursor height 
             ANDmaskCursor,     // AND bitmask 
             XORmaskCursor );   // XOR bitmask 
 

To create the cursor, CreateCursor applies the following truth table to the AND and XOR bitmasks.

For more information, see Bitmaps.

Before closing, you must use the DestroyCursor function to destroy any cursors you created with CreateCursor. It is not necessary to destroy cursors created by other functions.