So here's the scenario: I just set my mouse pointers for a different look, rebooted, upon log on pointers are changed back to default. Went to change it back but it is already set. I clicked ok and pointers are now changed. Rebooted again to see if it resets and what do you know, it reverts back to vista's default again...
Did some googling and found out this problem is prevalent to logitech devices. It says that logitech drivers have a certain program called setpoint that changes the mouse pointer back to default. The solution is to disable setpoint in msconfig but it's not there and I didn't install any logitech drivers for my mouse and keyboard.
I had the same problem. In my case, I had to move my downloaded curser files into the C/Windows/curser file. Then when you personalize the pointer as normal, you can select it as you would a factory pointer.