Use of Startglass Cursor Under Windows NT

• Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1
• Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1

Summary:

The hourglass and pointer cursors indicate the same things under Windows NT that they do under Windows. The hourglass indicates that an application is busy and that the user cannot perform any new action with that application. However, Windows NT allows the user to switch to a new application, even when an application is showing an hourglass. The pointer indicates that the application is ready for user commands.

There is also a new cursor introduced in the Windows NT operating system: an hourglass plus a pointer (referred to as a "startglass"). It indicates that the system has received an application start request and is processing it, but that the user can still perform other mouse commands (such as starting another application or switching to another window).

More Information:

The startglass was added so that if an application took several seconds to display a window, the user would not think that the application had not started, and then try to start another instance.

Note that the cursor is not available as a standard cursor, nor does it have an identifier in the header files for use by application programmers.