rdesktop - windows 7 - mouse pointer invisible - no black outline

Question

I have recently upgraded to Windows 7.

I use rdesktop from my linux desktop to remote in.

The Win7 system default mouse pointer theme is white with a black outline. However, when using rdesktop, the black outline is not displayed, rendering the pointer invisible when on a white background.

I have tried using the black pointer theme, but there one or two pointers which don't have a black counterpart (eg: the pointing finger for when you mouse over a url) - these too disappear.

This problem does not occur on WinXP.

Is there any way to get a black outline on rdesktop to Win7?

Answer 1

Just go to control panel, on the remote Windows 7 desktop, and disable Mouse pointer shadow, in the mouse configuration section.

Answer 2

I have just solved this over at Unix & Linux StackExchange. In short, you can tell Xorg to override the cursor that rdesktop is trying to set, so that you get a different cursor instead:

$ mkdir -p ~/.icons/default/cursors
$ ln -s /usr/share/icons/Vanilla-DMZ/cursors/left_ptr ~/.icons/default/cursors/24020000002800000528000084810000

In this case the default Windows 7 cursor (2402...) is being replaced by the default arrow (left_ptr) from the Vanilla-DMZ cursor theme. Adjust as appropriate. The change should be visible as soon as you close and reopen rdesktop.

Answer 3

My situation: Logging onto a Windows 10 computer host with a Ubuntu 14.04 client using rdesktop.

My problem: Both the remote Windows desktop background and the remote Windows mouse were black rendering the mouse pointer invisible i.e. black on black.

My solution: Change the black Windows remote mouse pointer to white To change a black mouse pointer to white:

1. Go to the lower-left Windows screen to the start menu (lower left corner)
2. in the Type here to search box type: control panel
3. and from the resulting control panel menu select: Hardware and Sound
4. from the resulting menu under Devices and Printers select: Mouse
5. You should get a pop-up window labeled Mouse Properties
6. In Mouse Properties click: Pointers on the tab (upper part of the window)
7. With the Pointers tab selected, at the bottom of this window unselect (i.e. uncheck) the box labeled: Enable pointer shadow.

The unselecting of the Enable pointer shadow mouse control should then make your remote mouse pointer turn white so you get a white mouse pointer on the black remote background.

Answer 4

Following the solution already posted to override the unknown cursors I wrote a script that fixes all Aero cursors. The challenge was to identify all cursor hashes, especially the animated ones (17 hashes per cursor). Its on https://github.com/DavidLP/rdesktop_cursor_fix. You can also just copy the hashes from the script and link it to the Linux cursors you like. I would have commented to the answer already given but the reputation systems prevents this...