What I don’t like about Zorin is that it has the same fault as Windows when it comes to not notifying the user something is going on/happening. It all starts from the very first menu where you can chose to test a live install and continues at the desktop. So when you on the first menu click enter, you see nothing telling you it’s on its way to install, just like a frozen system, and so it continues: is it possible to learn from Q4OS or Puppy for example? My recommendation: never silently start a program without visual signs something happened (so people doesn’t click again and again). A simple hour glass is good enough, but taskbar buttons appearing at once or splash screens are better.
Welcome, hanker.
I recall the cursor becoming a little circular watch-like icon when I was installing. If you don’t mind elaborating? I am not sure I completely grasp your concern on the installation side.
Regarding once you’re up and running, please go to Settings -> Notifications and choose the setup that you prefer. That way you can get popup notifications for the applications you prefer.
Firstly, going back to square one, where did you download the image from? Second did you check the SHA sum or md5 sum of the downloaded .iso before creating your choice of boot media? Oh and you didn’t use a Download Accelerator Manager to get the .iso? 
Hi moderators: I get from your replies that this is already solved, I just haven’t seen it or there’s a setting for it? Well at the very start there’s definitely no setting: press ENTER to chose the first alternative (live install). Ok the text about chosing goes away, but then it seems just like a frozen system until the Zorin animation finally comes. Better to clear and display a “wait…” to inform. (Just an example). No bad, I just happen to hate modern windows-style “did I start it?”-questions. What about you? Click an image/document you want to see and nothing seems to happen for too many seconds => do you start wondering if you really clicked it?
I downloaded from the official site, or where it lead me to download.
The best place to download from is here:
If the chosen server is too slow you can say so on the download page to try a different download location.
The notification of the Mouse Icon changing to a watch or another “running” indicator is determined by the Mouse Icon theme stored in /usr/share/icons or ~/.icons and selected using your appearance settings under “Mouse”.
If the Icon theme being used does not contain that indicator icon, then none will be shown.
@hanker, you may try looking at different icon themes to find one that serves the purpose you want and suits your tastes as well.
For The Zorin Team, I think this is a very valid observation and should be looked into. The Mouse Icon Theme used in Zorin is a Zorin Team Development. Yes, the old theme on Zorin 12.4 had the watch, too.
Er hem! The current Mouse theme which is changed via Universal Access in Settings is the backend theme used in Fedora and other distributions that have the same Settings Panel - it is not a Zorin Team theme ‘per se’. And I am of course speaking in relation to Core, not Lite.