Requirements for Animated Cursors

• Microsoft Windows 95

SUMMARY

There are two requirements for animated cursors in Windows 95:

• Protected-mode disk drivers
• A Windows 95-compatible display driver that meets the specifications described below

MORE INFORMATION

Disk Drivers

To use animated cursors in Windows 95, you must use protected-mode disk drivers. Protected-mode disk drivers are necessary because animated cursors require large amounts of page-locked memory (approximately 250 kilobytes). By using protected-mode drivers, this memory can be moveable. If Windows 95 allowed you to use animated cursors with real-mode disk drivers, you might not have enough memory to run your applications. If you use real-mode drivers, your cursors are in color (but not animated) as long as the Windows API call GetWinFlags() returns WF_DOSPAGING. Animated cursors will not be animated if they cannot perform SmartPageLocks or SmartPageUnlocks. The real-mode mapper prevents this.

Perform the following steps to determine if you are using protected-mode disk drivers:

1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. Double-click the System icon.

3. Click Performance. If you are using protected-mode disk drivers the File System entry should read "32-bit."

4. If the File System entry reads "Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility," click an item and then click Detail for more information about which drives are using MS-DOS compatibility mode.

   For information about troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility mode on hard disks, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

         ARTICLE-ID: Q130179
         TITLE     : Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks
   
         ARTICLE-ID: Q138899
         TITLE     : Description of the Ios.log File
   
   

Display Driver

To use animated cursors in Windows 95, you must also have a Windows 95- compatible display driver that uses the device-independent bitmap (DIB) engine and meets at least one of the following criteria:

• The display driver must run at 8 bits per pixel (bpp) or higher and support color cursors.

  NOTE: 256 colors = 8 bpp

  -or-

• The display driver must allow Windows 95 to access its memory in a linear fashion (such as through a frame buffer). This allows for smoother animation because Windows gains entrance to the driver during interrupt time.

• ATI Ultra (mach8) This driver does not support a frame buffer.
• Diamond Viper This driver is based on the Windows 3.1 video standard.
• Standard Display Adapter (VGA) This driver is based on a standard established prior to the development of animated cursors.
• Super VGA This driver is based on a standard established prior to the development of animated cursors.