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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Removing Mouse Pointer's Dropshadow in OS X...?

Removing Mouse Pointer's Dropshadow in OS X...?
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voodoo
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Aug 7, 2011, 11:06 AM
 
Can it be done?

It seems like a superflous and annoying thing, now that I've been test-driving it for the last six years or so - and I've decided against it. It is stupid, I don't need it or want it.

So can I remove it? Unfortunately after a google search I came up with no answers, not even whether it can be done or not - in fact, somewhat predictably there were a lot of questions from the time of 10.2.x asking how to enable the mouse drop shadow.

Apparently it depended on the GPU whether it was enabled or not, so the system must surely make some provision to disable it, no?

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Spheric Harlot
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Aug 7, 2011, 01:09 PM
 
My cursor in 10.6.8 does not have a drop shadow — on a brand-new 13" MBP w/ HD3000 graphics on an external 22" monitor in clamshell mode.

The Mickey Mouse hand for clicking on web links *does* have a shadow.
     
Big Mac
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Aug 7, 2011, 01:29 PM
 
Having the drop shadow was one of the indications that Quartz Extreme was enabled. I've never heard of anyone wanting to disable the drop shadow before. You could disable Quartz Extreme, but you really wouldn't want to do that because QE is really important for UI performance.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
voodoo  (op)
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Aug 7, 2011, 01:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
My cursor in 10.6.8 does not have a drop shadow — on a brand-new 13" MBP w/ HD3000 graphics on an external 22" monitor in clamshell mode.

The Mickey Mouse hand for clicking on web links *does* have a shadow.
That's actually very curious. My mickey-mouse hand for website clicking does have a shadow, as does my cursor (on 10.7.0 mid-2007 24" iMac)

The websites I've read (from the 10.2.x days) and forum posts from the same time indicate that the drop-shadow is contingent on GPU capabilites, so it is strange that one cursor has drop shadow and another does not.

I'm still curious if anyone knows how to turn this off.
I could take Sean Connery in a fight... I could definitely take him.
     
voodoo  (op)
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Aug 7, 2011, 01:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Having the drop shadow was one of the indications that Quartz Extreme was enabled. I've never heard of anyone wanting to disable the drop shadow before. You could disable Quartz Extreme, but you really wouldn't want to do that because QE is really important for UI performance.
QE and drop shadow are not connected, so says the internets. There were QE enabled Macs that did not support drop shadow.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...card-provides/

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...rs-dropshadow/

One thing everyone agrees on, Quartz Extreme and mouse cursor drop shadow are two distinct things.
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voodoo  (op)
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Aug 16, 2011, 02:51 PM
 
Oh well, it is perhaps like the new window animation in Lion (when new windows are made) in that there's no way of turning it off. It was worth a shot. I was feeling nostalgic about having a non-dropshadow cursor.
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TETENAL
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Aug 16, 2011, 05:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by voodoo View Post
Oh well, it is perhaps like the new window animation in Lion (when new windows are made) in that there's no way of turning it off.
10.7: Turn off zoom effect on new windows - Mac OS X Hints
     
voodoo  (op)
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Aug 17, 2011, 06:45 PM
 
Or perhaps it's even more difficult than turning off the new window effects.
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