Mouse pointer is text (I-beam) most of the time

Hi,

Lately - and sorry, I cannot pinpoint when this started - I noticed that the mouse pointer used most of the time is the text cursor, i.e. the I-beam shape (see it on this page: Pointers in macOS - Apple Support (CA) ). It started to annoy me, because this shape is now used pervasively in the browsers (FF & safari), even when I hover the mouse cursor above a link on page (it does this in both browsers).

I tried different apps. Thunderbird, for instance, changes the shape of the mouse cursor to an arrow, but if I go back to let's say, libreoffice, the cursor is changed back to the I-beam, and even when I hover it above the buttons on the toolbar. Weird.

What's going on? I don't understand. I never paid attention to the mouse cursor until now. I guess it just worked. Going down on this rabbit hole, I discovered that I cannot set it or reset it in the System Preferences, I can only increase its size or change colors. I found a video that shows how to change the mouse cursor using some app, but I find it surprising, because I thought this functionality should have been baked into the os.

I am going to reboot the computer to see if it makes any difference. The macos version that I have is: macOS 12.6.2 (21G320). I installed the latest Monterey update recently, and I also installed some other software for mobile development. I wouldn't think this should impact the mouse cursor shape, right?

Thanks!

Update:

Ok, I had a lot of apps opened, I started to close them one by one, checked the mouse cursor each time, and after I closed ultraedit, the mouse pointer was back to normal. I restarted ultraedit, and it is still normal, so I am not sure. I will keep a close eye on it.