squarehappy is Michael Huch is a cynical web developer and designer with more styles than content.

Middle Finger Cursor

posted by Mike on 05.31.2005 12:21 AM EST | 935 comments

Traffic for squarehappy historically has been a trickle. According to the referrers page there's pretty much only one reason people come here, and that's to marvel at the eighth wonder of the world, the Middle Finger Cursor. Since I posted the middle finger cursor some three years ago, I have yet to see anything like it on the internet to this day. I have little explanation for such an obvious hack, as they call pretty much every DIY project these days, not proliferating anywhere else, but my exclusive hold ensures that this site will continue to get a few hits a day until the middle finger loses all meaning and gets relegated to G-rated insult sometime in the not too distant future.

What is the Middle Finger Cursor?

I don't think this could possibly be any more obvious but I must consider that not everyone has as much computer experience as I have. Traditionally when a user hovers their mouse cursor over a link it changes into a white hand pointing its index finger at the link. The middle finger cursor uses this same hand and instead extends the middle finger towards the link. All right, there's the thesis statement. Let's move on to the Windows installation of the middle finger cursor. The rest of you are on your own.

Windows Installation

Download the zip file containing the cursor, and then extract the cursor. Please be sure to note the location the cursor is extracted to.
Click the Start button, then Settings, then Control Panel. In the control panel, double-click on the Mouse icon.
At the top of the window that comes up, click the Pointers tab. A list of all your assigned cursors should show. Scroll down the list until you find the one called "Link Select" and double-click on it.
Now you must find the cursor on your hard drive. I can't walk you through this one. Double-click on it when you find it though. It should be named "finger".
The middle finger cursor should now appear in the list in the Pointers tab. Click the OK button at the bottom of the window to complete the switch.
YOU ARE SUCCESS!

These are the instructions for Windows XP but the journey should be similar for other versions of Windows. Any computer geek out there should've stopped reading awhile ago, unless they enjoy mentally critiquing my technical writing.

Give People The Middle Finger Cursor On Your Site

If you want to use the middle finger cursor on your site, I've got no qualms with that. I will even provide step-by-step instructions on to do so. This will inflate my content, which is helpful in attracting visitors. That's what I read in a book anyway.

First, upload the cursor to your server or whatever web hosting you may have. Note the directory it was uploaded to.

If you're forced to, or actually choose to use CSS in your HTML file, insert the following in between the <head> and < /head> tags, preferrably not in the middle of something else:

<style type="text/css" media="screen">
<!--
a { cursor: url(http://yoursite.com/path/to/finger.cur); }
-->
</style>

Sridhar has graciously provided middle figner cursor hosting for those too lazy or cheap to get their own. So you can link directly to the file http://www.users.cloud9.net/~sridhar/finger.cur, meaning use that URL in your CSS instead of the one in the example above. Oh hell, I'll just do it for you.

<style type="text/css" media="screen">
<!--
a { cursor: url(http://www.users.cloud9.net/~sridhar/finger.cur); }
-->
</style>

With any luck or browser support (Internet Explorer only at this point), your visitors should be in for a surprise that they probably won't even notice, and you're better off for that. I'll wrap up this mini-how-to with a disclaimer. I don't condone this. That is to say, I wouldn't do it on my webpage because I don't want to change people's browser settings, offend someone, yada yada yada. But if I saw it on a webpage, it would not affect me in the slightest. It would actually make me feel all fuzzy, because I made it, but I'm trying to remain objective. People just let things get under their skin like it's made of Swiss cheese, and in general should just lighten up. So go for it!

By now, you should have the middle finger cursor up and running. If not, that's what the comments are for. But you're not having any problems. You've got an almost subliminally wonderful mouse cursor that finally has something to say, and that something is "Fuck You!"

Comments

Post a Comment

Posted by iissmart on 06.14.2005 11:17 AM EST

sweet image :) I can have some fun with this...

Posted by elmer on 07.06.2005 2:48 PM EST

hey how do i post that to a website???

Posted by Mike on 07.23.2005 05:35 AM EST

I should've responded much sooner, and for that, one thousand apologies. To use the cursor on your site, read the new end of the article.

uLink in action on the above link folks! Too bad it'll break the above link, but you won't really need it after you've clicked it. It's an eventually kind of fix.

Posted by OnefishTwofish on 08.11.2005 09:23 AM EST

Thanks, this is the perfect way to make my work computer just a little different.

Posted by Ashton on 12.19.2005 8:27 PM EST

wtf mine cant work on my myspace!

Posted by kris on 12.20.2005 10:46 PM EST

hey i need to know how to set this as my myspace cursor i tried

--> --> a { cursor: url(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/385/middlefingercursor4nj.gif); } -->

but it didnt work...u think u can help me

Posted by Mike on 12.21.2005 5:19 PM EST

You're trying to use an image file as the cursor, the blown-up image of the cursor above, no less. Use the link to the zip file provided in the article. Extract finger.cur and upload that to your file host. I have no idea if Image Shack would host a .cur file, but given their name I'd doubt it.

Posted by Chris on 12.24.2005 5:49 PM EST

Aren\'t you glad this is what you\'re famous for?

Posted by Mike on 12.25.2005 3:22 PM EST

beats mass genocide

Posted by Paris Hilton on 01.22.2006 11:58 AM EST

thanks for the info. This is perfect.

Posted by Natasha on 01.26.2006 10:26 PM EST

thaz real funny

Posted by kyle on 02.17.2006 11:49 PM EST

well i saved this file to my hard drive and it is coming up as a zipped folder...how do i change it to the format of a real cursor?

Posted by Chris on 02.19.2006 5:52 PM EST

I hope thats a joke...

Posted by Mike on 02.21.2006 04:35 AM EST

Judging by the nature of the other comments, particularly the unique spelling of "that's" (not yours Chris), I'll have to take this one seriously. Just change the extension of the file from .zip to .cur.

But seriously seriously, by referring to it as a zipped folder you're implying that you understand its purpose, to contain data. All the technical support you really need for this problem is "Try double clicking on it." The rest should be pretty self explanatory. If not, refer to Step 1 in the instructions.

Posted by Chris on 02.21.2006 07:51 AM EST

I had to leave out the apostrophe, because whenever I try to type one a backslash magically appears. It could be due to the fact that this computer (good ol Gravy) has Firefox 0.8 on it

Posted by Mike on 02.22.2006 05:16 AM EST

This is entirely the fault of my lazy PHP coding. One stripslashes() function away. See the summary of the PHP & MySQL section for another example.

Not that Firefox isn't buggy as hell. Mine\'s in such a state that every error message thrown results in a crash, no matter how many reinstalls in different directories. I was kind of forced to migrate to Opera and it was hard to look back.

Posted by Kammo on 02.27.2006 06:42 AM EST

I am trying to make the middle finger come on when the cursor is held over a link button, Can you give me a step by step on what i need to do? I know I sound like an idiot but I would love to use this and am not sure on how to get it to work.
I have uploaded it to my site.
This is what i tryed to put in. What is wrong????

Posted by Kammo on 02.27.2006 06:46 AM EST

Sorry I did not tell you I am useing frontpage to do this so I need basic html code..

Posted by Mike on 02.27.2006 6:11 PM EST

post a link to your site and it'll be a lot easier for me to show you what you need to change.

Posted by Kammo on 03.03.2006 3:44 PM EST

heres the link...
www.team-ban.com

Posted by Mike on 03.04.2006 3:22 PM EST

make the css declarations currently found on your home page look like so:

<style>

</style>

change the URL of the cursor in the example above to the actual URL of the middle finger cursor on your server. this will only work on the main page however, and if you want it to work on your pages, you'll have to add the new css to each page on your site individually or include a css file that all your pages link to. but that is, as they say, beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Posted by joe on 04.26.2006 11:39 AM EST

what code should i use for myspace.com

Posted by Mike on 04.29.2006 12:33 AM EST

The same code I posted above on the last section of the article. I don't use MySpace so the page editing part of the site is foreign to me. Wherever you can enter CSS declarations, paste the following:

a { cursor: url(http://yoursite.com/path/to/finger.cur); }

I can't really help you much further than that.

Posted by Chris on 05.03.2006 04:54 AM EST

You need to figure out a way to charge $1 per download. I think there's a market for middle finger cursors that include tech support.

Posted by Belle on 06.06.2006 08:15 AM EST

very cool- but does it work with Mac/Safari?
Tried using it using Dreamweaver but don't think I'm doing it right...

Posted by Mike on 06.06.2006 12:49 PM EST

I can't say this enough. It is imperative that you show your code. I can't guess what is wrong when it comes to computers. Link me to the offending page and I'll see what I can do.

Posted by Jon on 09.14.2006 12:01 PM EST

i hate you. but i love the cursor.

Posted by the doctor on 10.07.2006 05:46 AM EST

I love this, thank you...

Posted by ross on 12.31.2006 1:24 PM EST

i cant seem to get this to work on my myspace, i tried copy and pasting the code into the area with my other html but doesnt seem to work...any help?

Posted by Mike on 12.31.2006 9:05 PM EST

Post a link to your page. I don't use MySpace but I could look at the CSS and maybe figure out the problem.

Posted by ross on 01.01.2007 4:36 PM EST

i put it under url...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=21724681

Posted by Mike on 01.01.2007 9:29 PM EST

You used the example CSS from a previous comment of mine.

a { cursor: url(http://www.team-ban.com/path/to/finger.cur); }

That wasn't an actual URL, just an example of how he'd have to link to it. the "path/to/" part means the directory or "folder" that the cursor is located in.

It is in reality located wherever you upload it to. This means you need to understand how to get your files hosted and how to link to them. Once you have uploaded the cursor and obtained the cursor's URL, then you can use with the same code as above, except with the real URL.

You also don't need the other CSS you copied onto your page, just the line above.

Posted by ross on 01.02.2007 09:11 AM EST

THANKS A BUNCH!

Posted by nick on 02.18.2007 5:46 PM EST

cool

Posted by Andrew on 02.20.2007 09:55 AM EST

do any of you think this is work safe?

Posted by Steven on 03.02.2007 10:38 PM EST

Probably not, but whatever... :p

I am putting this on my web site, thanks man!

Posted by Jared on 03.04.2007 5:29 PM EST

is there anywhere that this is already hosted that i could use? because... i'm too lazy to do anything like getting it hosted or whatever else it would take

Posted by Mike on 03.04.2007 11:12 PM EST

Not that I'm aware of. Most ISPs give you free hosting to some extent, so it may already be available to you.

Posted by jenda on 05.05.2007 9:28 PM EST

aww man i cant figure out how to do this.. im like computer dislexic or sumthing.

Posted by Sridhar on 06.01.2007 10:51 PM EST

How about this? Anyone who wants to can use my hosted copy of the cursor at http://www.users.cloud9.net/~sridhar/finger.cur

You're welcome. 8-)

Posted by Mike on 06.02.2007 2:03 PM EST

Let the hotlinking begin. Thanks Sridhar.

Posted by Winston on 06.07.2007 06:26 AM EST

This thing is awesome, I tell all my friends about this websight. I wish you made one for macs though.

Posted by Mike on 06.07.2007 11:42 PM EST

I didn't realize the cursor was incompatible with Macs. I'll look into providing a cursor for you 3% of all computer users.

Posted by fuck you on 06.14.2007 11:04 AM EST

this shit dont work.

Posted by Mac on 07.01.2007 12:33 PM EST

I can only assume Mr F. You is a computer GENIUS and is doing something faaaaaaaaaaaaaar to clever to be compatible with your immature cursor.

I'm which case i'm an idiot! I love it! You just saved me the effort of finding a cursor editor and doing it myself.
Wonder if any of my mates will notice it on myspace!? And the common cry across our office of "my computer just gave me the finger" will soon be completely true!

Does this work in Firefox tho? I can't see it on mine but it's working 100% in Explorer.

Posted by Mike on 07.05.2007 10:52 PM EST

At this point, only IE supports a URL for the cursor property. I didn't realize that until you brought it up, but putting the cursor on a webpage was an afterthought. I should amend the article, since I can't stand IE, and I put the information out there like IE is THE web browser.

But what I love about computers is that there's always another way. With this script from Dynamic Drive you can force other browsers to display the cursor anyway.

Posted by Jarod on 08.07.2007 5:02 PM EST

***MYSPACE USERS***
to get this cursor on myspace use this code and it will work.

a { cursor: url(http://yoursite.com/path/to/finger.cur); }

Posted by Confused on 08.16.2007 1:09 PM EST

Maybe I'm just fucking retarded but I cannot figure this shit out!

Posted by JEWBOY on 12.19.2007 01:16 AM EST

how do i put this on my myspace profile??

Posted by Jean on 01.09.2008 5:59 PM EST

Great! Thanks a lot for a nice tweak ...

Posted by Tak on 01.18.2008 11:14 PM EST

Excellent! My instructor actually said in a lecture that he wanted such a cursor. So I did him a little favor and googled this up for him. He's gonna have a kick out of it. Thanks!

Posted by kimmielou on 01.25.2008 12:10 AM EST

can you make it so the cursor is a peace(middle+index fingers) then it changes to the middle finger when it hovers over a link? ive seen it on someones myspace but i cant find it anywhere.

Posted by Mike on 01.25.2008 04:33 AM EST

body { cursor: url(http://yoursite.com/path/to/peace.cur); }
a { cursor: url(http://yoursite.com/path/to/finger.cur); }

google is your friend in finding the peace cursor

Posted by dylan w on 02.03.2008 8:06 PM EST

ok, it doesnt work for me. i want an html code that i can post to my myspace, but i cant find an html code. please help!

Posted by dylan w on 02.03.2008 8:11 PM EST

ok, i downloaded it to my computer, but i still cant find out how to get it on my myspace.

Posted by Kirstin on 02.10.2008 3:57 PM EST

I have been looking for your invention for over 10 years. I had given up but happily someone referred me to you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Posted by Fast Eddy on 02.24.2008 09:20 AM EST

Great Cursor man! Googled middle finger cursor and found exactly what I was looking for. Props!!!

Posted by SLOW EDDY on 03.11.2008 09:20 AM EST

Another satisfied customer. Found it by googling for it. props!

BTW, my name is not Eddy.

Posted by Big bean on 03.19.2008 11:42 PM EST

a { cursor: url(http://www.users.cloud9.net/~sridhar/finger.cur); }

For all the myspacers that are to "I D 10 T" to do it on there own, copy the above text and post it under the "About Me:" section when your editing the page...... if myspace can do it, it will show up.....and if the link is not broken

Posted by Nakai on 04.30.2008 5:00 PM EST

thats kinda cool...i didnt know they really had one i was just serching one day

Posted by not guilty on 05.19.2008 6:31 PM EST

I'm so glad Al Gore invented the internet to for things like this. He can now sit on my cursor and spew about things like global warming.

Posted by rapidrex on 06.22.2008 8:38 PM EST

yeah thanks to Al Gore for inventing the internet so I could find SquareHappy and get the finger! Hmmm Al Gore....Isn't he the one who also invented global warming?

Posted by kitch on 07.05.2008 07:22 AM EST

every time i try to download it, Internet Explorer says there's a problem, and stops working.. Why is this???

Posted by suchastrangekid on 08.20.2008 01:40 AM EST

hahahahhahahahahahahhaa these comments are funny.
anyways thanks. even though i don't know how to use it since im part of that 3% population with a mac(:

Posted by tara on 09.22.2008 08:47 AM EST

love it.. surprisingly no one notices it.. =] thanks

Posted by dirtiwhiteboi on 01.09.2009 04:46 AM EST

i can't believe that at my age, and with my IQ, that it took me this long to discover, let alone think of.

...then again, the first time i ever heard that 'he who farts in church, sits in his own pew' joke until i was like 23.

in both instances: simple. too simple. pffft.

lmfao :P

Posted by 0King on 02.04.2009 2:57 PM EST

OMG>>>SOO KOOL

Posted by Kitkat on 03.04.2009 09:25 AM EST

This is sooooooooo cool.

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