I can think of a few possible reasons.
First, perhaps you chose it as the wrong cursor option, for example, the busy cursor rather than the normal pointer?
Second, maybe Windows keeps a cache of cursors so simple using the same file name won't work.
Third, you may need to set it to a different cursor, then back to the one you want.
Forth and most likely, it's possible Windows won't let you make changes to the default cursor file.
In any case, I strongly suggest you make your own folder for your custom cursors, and save the pink one in there using "Save As". Then, load it from there in the control panel 😊.
Hope this helps.
Color Doesn't Save or Display
I've loaded the aero_arrow_xl.cur file from c:\Windows\Cursors and simply filled it with a pink color then saved it as c:\Windows\Cursors\aero_arrow_pink_xl.cur
I can choose this as my pointer in Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointers, but it still displays as white (identical to the original).
I'm sure I'm loading the right file because I renamed the original aero_arrow_xl.cur to aero_arrow_xl.cur.old.
Why won't it show up as pink?