Forums Bug Reports The mouse pointer disappears!

I've just installed the new mIRC v6.14 and I quickly found what seems to be a bug: as soon as I start writing text in any editbox, the mouse pointer disappears. It only reappears if I move the mouse, or press enter. Immediately after unchecking "Multibyte editbox" in Options->IRC->Messages, the problem was gone. My OS is Windows ME.

Anyone has encountered the same problem ?

This is an effect of the new Rich Text control used while Multibyte characters are enabled. I seem to recall a system level setting for this effect, but I don't remember where I saw it. It hides the mouse cursor so you can see the text under it, while you type.

I tried disabling "Hide pointer while typing" in the control panel (Windows XP) mouse options (Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Options) but to no effect. Unchecking the "Multibyte editbox" option doesn't work for me.

[edit: disabling the 'hide pointer while typing' setting does zilch for lots of other things too, such as the Windows Run or Search windows - the cursor still hides. Maybe my system is just being stubborn or the change requires a reboot to be effective. - *shrug*]

The "Hide pointer while typing" option in Windows' Mouse Control Panel is incredibly misleading. It's an Intellipoint feature, and does not impact RichEdit -- meaning, whether you turn this option on or off, it will not affect RichEdit applications such as Wordpad.

Microsoft KB256979 miserably tries to address this concern, but confuses the reader even more:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;256979

Most applications I've seen have their own capability for hiding/showing the mouse cursor on input; Vandyke's SecureCRT app does this, for example. However, it's not RichEdit.

Unlike sgh, turning off Multibyte input/display on my XP Pro workstation still continues to cause the cursor to disappear when typing, implying that mIRC quite possibly still has the option "laying around somewhere."

The bottom line is that Microsoft needs to tie RichEdit input with the Intellipoint option, rather that just blindly shutting off the cursor. If I'm wrong and MS actually DOES do this, then surely there is a way for apps which use RichEdit to accomplish the same goal.

Is there truly any way to achieve NOT hiding the cursor when typing in mIRC (or better yet, any other RichEdit app)? Possibly making an option to force the cursor on would be suitable, but I don't know what kind-of impact this would have...

PLEASE tell me if you find out.