lin821

First things first. I don't "dress up" my cursor and turn it into say a cute kitty, fish, or something. I like it normal, just the plain and simple arrow that turns into a (white) pointing hand over a hyperlink. Yes, I like my cursor boring.

I use both IE and Firefox. In the last two weeks, my browsers start freezing up and sometimes becoming unresponsive (more on IE than FF) in the middle of a search or session for no obvious reason (that's another problem for another thread).

So, I decided to give Chrome a try and see if it would make a difference. I downloaded and installed Chrome this afternoon. After one of the reboots after software and antivirus updates, my cursor starts acting out. On both FF and Chrome, my cursor is still normal. I don't know why, but it only happens on IE. I don't think my laptop is infected since I can't find anything about this "open-hand cursor virus" in color.

This is what my cursor becomes on IE:
1. My IE cursor becomes an open hand all over the whole webpage.
2. The hand gesture doesn't change when it's over a hyperlink. Only when I click on a link, the normal white pointing hand will display for a split second.
3. The open hand is always in color, the same light beige color as the folder icon.
4. The beige open-hand cursor turns into a fist when I try to highlight a word/sentence/paragraph by left-clicking and holding the mouse over the text. I can only highlight either one word or the whole paragraph by double clicking the left button.
5. With me left-clicking and holding the mouse, the fist can move the webpage upwards and downwards, just like doing it with the mouse scrolling wheel. In other words, I can't copy and paste while on IE.
6. The open hand remains when I move it over to the right screen to drag the scrolling bar.
7. When I move it down to the task panel at the bottom, the normal white arrow cursor returns.

What happens to my IE cursor? I didn't download nor install any new mouse driver today. I didn't change my system's settings either.My OS is WP Pro but I doubt it matters.

What to do to get my "normal" IE cursor back? I really hate that colored open hand and fist.

Thanks!

ps. I am not ready to dump IE completely yet. So don't tell me "just get rid of it."

CApreppie

Don't get rid of it. Just ignore it.

lin821

Well, I wish I could. That open-hand cursor prevents me from performing tasks I need to do on IE.

Hope the open hand was not a symptom of infection. My security suite didn't flag anything.

FliesCasually

Maybe Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointers -> Scheme reset to "Windows Default (system scheme)"

lin821

The mouse pointer has always been "Windows Default" and I didn't change anything. I just checked and it's still the system default.

If the setup had been affected, the cursor should have behaved consistently across all browsers. But it's not. Like I said I am really puzzled why the pointer/cursor changes only on IE, but not on FF & Chrome.

sbm12

Try running iexplore -extoff and see if you still have problems. If you do then it is a plug-in/add-on that you've got on your system.

lin821

Thank you! Mystery solved!

Just ran iexplore -extoff and my pointer is back! Thank you!

I don't recall I had any plug-in added before the open-hand "syndrome" started yesterday. The only new thing I installed was Chrome. Oh! and the web proxy, Privoxy, to block the ad on Chrome, following this advice.

I don't want to keep the open-hand plugin though. Can anyone tell me how to locate the accidental IE add-on and remove it from my system?

msb0b

In IE7, open up the Internet Options via the Control Panel, go to Programs tab and click on the Manage add-ons button. Change the Show drop down box to "Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer", and disable all add-ons except the ones that you actually use.

I only have Shockwave Flash, Windows Media Player, XML DOM Document and XML HTTP 6.0 on my bare minimum system.

lin821

Thanks for the direction. I've never had to manage IE add-ons before.

The thing is I don't know which one is in charge of the open-hand cursor.

ETA:
I found the culprit. It's the IE7Pro Grab and Drag. I don't know I did with it. I just click it again from the dropdown menu for Settings and my cursor is back! Thank you all for joining my in my embarrassing journey!

sbm12

Happy to help!

Apparently it is some sort of toolbar-like application that incorporates ad blocking, google searching, spell checking and a few other features. The grab and drag is just one of the features/annoyances that it installs.

butohh

Hi everyone please help me!!

i have this problem, but thing is, i cant find and locate iePro7 on my manage add onss tab!! im really frustrated by this. anyone can tell me how can i fix it?

linsj

Today the hand cursor made its debut in IE7. I also have IE7Pro installed, but the Grab and Drag feature is disabled. After trying everything else I could think of to get the arrow cursor back, I uninstalled IE7Pro, which fixed the problem. Thinking the program was corrupted, I reinstalled it; and the hand cursor is back even though Grab and Drag is still disabled. Is there any hope of having both IE7Pro and the arrow cursor? I don't want to give up some of the features I like in IE7Pro, but I hate the hand cursor enough to do so if I have to make a choice.

lin821

I still have IE7 and IE7Pro and my hand cursor hasn't made another appearance since disabling Grab and Drag.

The only thing I can think of is system restore (back to when your cursor was normal). Not sure if it would work. Try and see if it makes any difference. Good luck!

BTW, I hate that hand cursor too.

elCheapoDeluxe

Most of those toolbars are there to provide some revenue generating activity for their creators. Redirecting searches? Popping up ads? Replacing ads on web pages with their own ads? Collecting your browsing habits? Not to mention how much information they collect simply because so many people don't know the difference between the search bar they've installed and the address bar. I can't COUNT how many people I've been on the phone with and asked them to go to a web site and they start reading me search results.

The vast majority of these are targeted at gullible cyber-fools, and I wouldn't install any of them.

Tina Sidell

I found that if you uninstall ie7pro current version and install an earlier version it is a lot better and no grab and drag feature