Why does my mouse cursor change appearance

Exactly - how - does the cursor appearance change? Your post did not make that clear.

Does it happen on every program you use? Or just one in particular?
Some programs have the ability to change cursor appearance.

Hi  

Some viruses can do that....what AV are you running ?

All the best Brett  

It goes from an arrow- to a double sided arrow with a little circle in the center.
It's so hard to click on a link or anything because of how the arrow is positioned.
Then out of nowhere it changes back.

All programs?

Test out five or six different programs.
Report if it's all, just some, or just one, program where that happens.

It happens on any site- anything. If I'm in my email, playing solitare, reading CNN: MSN; The New York Times: The New Yorker;
Nordstrom; makeup sites; workout sites; fitday.com...

So it only happens in your web browser? Which is Internet Explorer?
Thats... just 1 program.

Oh--- no I'm sorry. I misunderstood you. Or I wasn't reading properly.
I'm on google chrome. and these are the only sites I go on . the only thing I use my home computer for.

Can you try Notepad, Paint and a few of the other programs... besides Chrome?

Ok- I'll get back to you.
Thanks for being so patient with me!

Two things to try:

1) change your cursor (type "cursor" into the Start Menu or find the Mouse Properties in the Control Panel)

2) Install or reinstall the recommended drivers for your mouse

Other:
- download, update and run Malwarebytes (free version) and Spybod search & destroy

NO matter what program I'm in, my cursor changes appearance & stays that way for up to an hour...sometimes less.

Have u figured this out yet. I started having the same issue recently. Thought it was a particular web site, as it started when I was using that site. But maybe not. The computer is also randomly locking up requiring a reboot. Using FF 21.0. I found a conflict with one extension causing google maps not to work but have not found the cause of this issue.
Apparently it is system related as u r using a different browser.

Last couple of days my otherwise reliable machine (windows 7) has started freezing, requiring reboot. Just now the mouse cursor changed to a Word-like cursor when you're adding text, but only partially visible, then a couple of minutes later went back to normal. This was with Firefox only running. When I just clicked on a link, again the cursor got all corrupted.

I wonder if its related to what you've had?

EDIT: fixed my problem - it was the graphics card. Too much dust in it, just needed a clean. Weirdly it was playing games fine, was only have the problem when on the desktop!