In synaptic, search for "pointer" and find a few extra to install.

Right click the desktop, choose CHANGE DESKTOP BACKGROUND, click THEME
tab and then CUSTOMIZE button then POINTER tab. Now choose your pointer.

http://gnome-look.org has a few nice ones there under x11 mouse themes.

Synaptic has a search, but I don't think they have colored mouse pointers like
Xandros Linux had, or was it Linspire? I'm not sure it they have a variety of
sizes either.

On your other matter, if the start button is bothersome, you could try another
GUI that brings up a menu with a right mouse click.

synaptic search for "cursor":

big-cursor
bisigi-cursor-theme
chameleon-cursor-theme
comixcursors
crystalcursors
dmz-cursor-theme
human-theme
moblin-cursor-theme
oxygen-cursor-theme
oxygen-cursor-theme-extra
xcursor-themes

But then again, several are probably from added repos.

Yes click applications and Ubuntu Software Center and there you can find
loads of options. But looking under each icon list I found a Program to
install called Curse Selection.