Windows 7: Shortcut Arrow - Change, Remove, or Restore

Hello Ted,

All options work in Windows 8 as well.

Hi,

The shell number for option two that will give you no arrow is 49.
That is the blank area in the icon list of the dll file.

To check that, pick any shortcut file on your desktop (any file you can change the icon will do actually), choose 'change icon and then browse to the shell32.dll and open. Counting from left and down the columns starting with 0, 29 (thus the shell32.dll,29 in the regedit option) comes to the tiny arrow. Continue to count until you get to a blank space (mine was 49, 50, 51, and 52). Any of the blank numbers will eliminate the arrow.

Option two works, no need to run programs or point to blank icos. You can back up the key by exporting it. I named mine 'no arrow.reg'. That way if I have to re-install down the line, I just merge the file and done!

Just a quick thanks to Brink (and everyone else) for helping with the Windows 7 shortcut arrow. I found it to be one of the more annoying graphical changes from XP to Vista and Win 7. Three years posting support for this - that's dedication Brink. Thx again!

You're most welcome nineball, and welcome to Seven Forums. I'm glad that it was able to help.

Alas, neither approach worked for me!

The Vista Shortcut Manager (FxVisor64.msi) apparently expects Vista, not Windows 7, since it consistently fails when I try to commit (Apply) the selection. I get 'Unhandled exception... ...The system cannot find the file specified' That's too bad, because it looked like the better, more complete solution (since I also do not want the "Shortcut" extension to the name.

So, I tried Option 3 (since I've had very good luck to date with Registry modifiers downloaded from sevenforumns), but it not only eliminated the arrow, but it also replaced the image of the target folder/file with a generic icon (and this shortcut icon could not be modified with the RightClick->Properties interface).

Fortunately, the Default_LINK_(Shortcut).reg modifier did recover things for me.

This is the second Windows 7 machine I've customized in about a year, and I am pretty sure that I found another way to eliminate the shortcut arrows the first time around (along with the "Shortcut" name extension). Any pointers would be appreciated! ... I will do some more searching on my own as well, of course.

Thanks!

Hello Jdub,

Are you sure that you are using the correct 32-bit or 64-bit version of Vista Shortcut Manager for your same 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7?

System Type - 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)

If you have 32-bit Windows 7 installed, then you must use the 32-bit Vista Shortcut Manager (fxvisor32.msi).

If you have 64-bit Windows 7 installed, then you must use the 64-bit Vista Shortcut Manager (fxvisor64.msi).

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi!

I need help with this... I have used this shortcut arrow fix (using a "light arrows" image I found online two years ago, in .ico format) in Windows 7 Pro x64, with no issues at all... it has always worked perfectly, and still does, on my desktop shortcuts.

But recently, I've noticed that the default arrows appear now, whenever I attempt to save an image or document:



What have I done to cause the default arrows to show when saving something, and yet, the tiny arrows I chose still appear on my desktop shortcuts?

I have tried everything I can think of to fix this issue... help, please?

Thank you

Hello CCx, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if restoring the default shortcut arrow to reset it, then reapplying your custom one may help.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn... I tried that once, and it didn't make any difference. Now I CAN'T uninstall the custom overlay - it won't go away, in spite of several attempts to uninstall it. I've got a problem here, lol

I'm assuming that you already did step 3 in OPTION THREE, and checked OPTION TWO to delete the registry entry for the icon if there?

Did changing the icon using OPTION ONE not change it?