Windows 8 introduced a new flat wait cursor. It is possible, however, to change the appearance of the cursor into the original hourglass cursor. The wait cursor in Windows 7 was almost identical. Windows Vista introduced a new, animated wait cursor. History The older 'hourglass cursor', used in Windows 9x, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.įrom Windows 1.0 to Windows XP, it was represented by an hourglass. The wait cursor can display on programs using the Windows API. It can be accompanied by an arrow if the operation is being performed in the background.
The Windows wait cursor, informally the Blue circle of death (known as the hourglass cursor until Windows Vista) is a cursor that indicates that an application is busy performing an operation.
The wait cursor in Windows 8.x and Windows 10
