Scott Hanselman

How to change the width of the text insertion cursor

February 06, 2007 Comment on this post [9] Posted in Musings
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I got this question today:

Do you know how to change the icon used for the blinking insertion point in VStudio?  I’d like to make it a little more visible…

Here's how to change the width for that little "i-bar." Go to Control Panel | Accessibility, then to the Display Tab, and move the Width Slider to the right.

The accessibility stuff in Windows is very nice. I say that as someone who used to have VERY bad eyes and then got Lasik'ed by a machine running Windows 98.

Have you been LASIK'ed? How'd it go?

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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February 06, 2007 23:18
six years and counting, no negative effects, side or otherwise. of course, my reasons for getting it were less than stellar. I was a scuba instructor here in Cayman at the time, and when I popped my head out of the water while teaching in the pool, all the poolside bikini babes were blurry. My eyes weren't bad enough to require any correction under water, as the ~25% magnification was enough for me to see the critters and I had contacts and glasses for topside dry-use. I did a walk-in consult when I went home to Vancouver for vacation, was a candidate for LASIK and it was cheap (AND in canadian dollars!) so I put my Herbie Hancock on the dotted line and five days later got lased. Since then, well, the bikini-watching future was so bright, I had to wear shades (thank you thank you, I'll be here all week, try the fish and don't forget to tip your waitress!)
February 07, 2007 0:00
I had lasik a little over 2 years ago. I was so used to wearing contacts and having them dry out, that when the surgery was over I walked out to the car and "squeezed" my eyelids together due to the extreme dryness, as it had become habit to do when my eyes got dry. This was a violation of the "DO NOT SQUEEZE OR RUB YOUR EYES RULE!!!" they impart, and needless to say the next day my vision was VERY blury and the Dr. said my eyes were really swollen. I had to go back into the chair so they could fix the flaps they cut on my eyes, and was reprimanded extensively. Needless to say I didn't squeeze, rub, or touch my eyes for about 2 months after that. However, I am very glad that I had the surgery and would do it again in a heartbeat. So the moral of the story is.. DON'T SQUEEZE YOUR EYES!!!
Tim
February 07, 2007 1:01
I had my LASIK surgery about a month ago and I'm loving it. My vision is ~20/15 for both eyes now. I still find it weird that I can read the time in the middle of the night without crawling over to the alarm clock. I love how the entire procedure only took 15 minutes, too. I would recommend it to anyone who has corneas (so as to not burn all the way through your head!!!) thick enough for the procedure!
February 07, 2007 1:48
I would at least like to have NTFS rather than FAT32 for my eye surgery...
February 07, 2007 3:58
Had mine about 4 years ago and now that I'm in my forties I'm still enjoying the fact that I don't have to wear glasses. My eyes were so bad that I almost didn't fit in as candidate, meaning I would have probably had to just wear weaker glasses/contacts. I'm so glad I got it done! The halo effect only really happened for about the first 6-8 months. the doctor who did mine was Jon Dischler, who if anyone investigates is involved in designing these lasers with Bosch and Lomb. He made the whole procedure smooth and I think I was out in about 10 minutes. It took longer for the valium to kick in. I mainly remember the faint smell of something resembling burned hair or flesh.

Just imagine though... having your eyes GPF'd. Win '98? Egad! Imagine also waiting to reboot in the middle of operating on your last eye to be done. That would be scaaaary! Congratulations on making it through that one! ;)
February 07, 2007 16:59
If you are using Vista the cursor width is in the following place.

Control Panel : Ease of Access Center : Make the computer easier to see : Set the thickness of the blinking cursor:

Geeesh.
February 07, 2007 20:29
I had Wavefront Lasik performed almost a year ago in Montreal, Canada at LasikMD and would recommend them to anyone in the northeastern United States. It was worth the trek! After the procedure I experienced no pain and very little discomfort and can see ~20/15 in both eyes. The strangest thing was hearing from my doctors that my eyes would be "guaranteed" for 3 years for future enhancements if necessary. Was I buying a muffler or getting vision correction?

As a developer starring at a computer screen for a living has concerned me regarding any kind of regression in my vision.
February 11, 2007 17:10
I did a LASIK operation almost 4 years ago. My sister had done it a year earlier, and was very happy from day one. I had more problems than her, probably due to my immune system being a bit overworked at the time. It took 7 weeks before I could see things more than 10 yards away without blurryness, and it hurt for a few weeks, but after that it was ok. I'm very, very happy that my parents sponsored me. When I see my husband struggeling with contacts and glasses, I'm very happy I had the guts to do it...
February 13, 2007 17:04
I am working on getting the Lasik done... 15 years of glasses is enough.

And the cursor width thing? Doesn't seem to exist for those of us stuck in the Win2k era. :(

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.