Windows error 1402 (ERROR_INVALID_CURSOR

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: the cursor handle passed to USER32 is invalid or no longer identifies a cursor.

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ERROR_INVALID_MENU_HANDLE	ERROR_INVALID_ACCEL_HANDLE

ERROR_INVALID_CURSOR_HANDLE

The HCURSOR does not identify a cursor

A cursor is a USER32 resource referenced through HCURSOR. This error points to the handle object supplied to a cursor-related operation, not to the current pointer position or a failure to load a file path.

Cursor ownership matters during cleanup. System cursors loaded with shared semantics are managed differently from cursors created by the application. Bugs often appear when generic resource wrappers destroy a shared handle, use a handle after replacing a cursor resource, or confuse HCURSOR and HICON because both are handle-sized opaque values.

What to check

Keep the loader or creator call and its ownership rule with the handle.
Check whether cleanup ran before a delayed SetCursor or class update.
Avoid using a generic integer or a handle of another GUI resource type.
When the cursor comes from a window class, inspect class registration and class lifetime as well.

A missing cursor resource is a load-time problem; this status is specifically about a handle presented as a cursor object.

References

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