Subject: bug#20271: 24.4; Can't change cursor type in w32

From: [email-masked] (João Távora)
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2015 12:48:11 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

>> From: [email-masked] (João Távora)
>> Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2015 12:35:08 +0100
>> 
>> Here's my -Q recipe
>> 
>>     Create a shortcut to "runemacs.exe -Q" (or "emacs.exe -Q")
>>     Run it
>>     In the new vanilla emacs, cursor is a thin vertical bar.
>>     Try to (setq cursor-type 'box) or any other option has no effect.
>>     Changing the default font has no effect, either
>
> I cannot reproduce this.  Does it happen only when you run Emacs via a
> desktop shortcut, but not if you run it from the cmd prompt?

Happens in both situations. I found the culprit. It's the Windows
Magnifier. If you (accidentally ,as in my case) start if *before* you
start Emacs, you get the thin 1px wide black vertical bar. There's no
real turning it off, so a logout is at least necessary.

The problem is well described here, and apparently exists for some time
now:

https://sinewalker.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/curious-cursor-complication-with-emacs-and-windows-magnifier/

> Do you have cursorType customized in the Registry, per chance?

No.

> I can tell you how to track the initial cursor drawing using GDB, but
> if the problem only happens when Emacs is invoked from a desktop
> shortcut, this could be a bit tricky.

This is interesting to track other problems in general. Can I get a
"good" precompiled gdb.exe from somewhere in the internet, perhaps your
ezwinports repo?

Thanks,
João