Shortcut Arrow - Change, Remove, or Restore

How to Change, Remove, or Restore the Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon in Windows​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to change, remove, or restore the default shortcut arrow overlay on all shortcut icons in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

   Warning

Removing the shortcut arrow will make it harder to tell which files are shortcuts or not.

You can still tell by right clicking or press and hold on the file, and click/tap on Properties to see if you have a Shortcut tab or not.

OPTION ONE

Change Shortcut Arrow using "Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover"

1. If you have not already, click/tap on the Download button below to download the Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (Vista Shortcut Overlay Manager) program below for the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows you have installed. Save the .msi file to your desktop, and install it.
32-bit (x86) Windows

Download



64-bit (x64) Windows

Download


2. Double click/tap on the program's shortcut to run the program.

3. To Change, Restore, or Remove the Arrow for All Shortcuts
A) Select (dot) the arrow option you want for the shortcut arrow. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you selected Custom Arrow to change the shortcut arrow, then click on Select and navigate to and choose a ICO (icon) file you have downloaded to use as the shortcut arrow.
4. To Remove the "Shortcut" Name from All Shortcuts
NOTE: See also: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/804-shortcut-extension-remove-restore.html
A) Check the box to also remove the - Shortcut name extension for new shortcuts that are created.
5. Click/tap on Apply.

6. Click/tap on Yes to log off to apply the changes. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you like, you could also just restart explorer instead to apply your changes.

7. Log back on and your done.

   Warning

If you used the Light Arrow or No Arrow option and uninstall "Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover", then they will be undone the next time you log off/on or restart the computer/explorer.

The Arrow (default) and Custom Arrow options will not be undone if you uninstall "Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover".

OPTION TWO

To Change Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon in Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter.

2. In regedit, navigate to the location below:
NOTE: If Shell Icons it is not in the left pane under Explorer, right click on Explorer, and click on New and Key. Type Shell Icons for the new keys's name, and press Enter.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

3. In the right pane of Shell Icons, right click on an empty area, and click/tap on New and String Value, and name it 29.

4. Double click/tap on the 29 sting value to modify it.

5. Type in the full path of your custom .ico file within quotes, OR copy and paste the path below for what overlay icon you would like to use, and click/tap on OK.

   Tip

If you like, you can download a transparent.ico file here to use instead.

(No arrow - Transparent) %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50

(Classic) %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-30

(Default) %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-16769
6. Log off and on, or restart the computer to apply.

OPTION THREE

To Change Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon using a REG File

NOTE: This option does the same thing as OPTION TWO above, but automatically for you using a .reg file.
1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Restore Default Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and go to step 5 below.

Default_Shortcut_Arrow.reg


Download


3. To Use Classic Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and go to step 5 below.

Classic_Shortcut_Arrow.reg


Download


4. To Have No Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and go to step 5 below.

No_Shortcut_Arrow.reg


Download


5. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply.

6. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Remove or Restore the "Shortcut" Name Extension in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change the Icon of a Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Hide a Folder or Shortcut Icon in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Create a Shortcut of a File, Folder, Drive, or Program in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Remove the Lock Icon from Files and Folders in Windows 7

 

[Teerex]

This is not just interesting, it's intriguing! I don't remember this in-house (and for me, insanely preferable) solution working consistently before, it would always fail after one or maybe couple of reboots.

Now, I've paid a visit to shell32.dll, and ascertained without a shadow of a doubt that it has indeed been patched since SP1; in my particular case, in October of last year. Maybe they have accidentally messed up something in it and made this kind of solution work!

Remm, thanks a bunch for looking into this again, even if just by chance. I've long given up and settled on the small arrow. I still atavistically fear partially invisible icons coming back, but after 2 reboots, 4 logouts and logins and one full shutdown-bootup cycle, my confidence is growing!

 

[Teerex]

Let me revisit this, and it merits a new post. The fail has nothing to do with shell32.dll, once I changed the path to from Remm's C:Windows to canonical %systemroot% things broke again, BUT, the problem is that even if you correct the registry problem, the fail persists through the good services of IconCache.db! Now, by rebulding it thusly I got this thing working again using %SystemDirectory% (!), now I'll wait, reboot etc. and will see what happens.

NO.

As soon as IconCache.db is changed or rebuilt again, the fail returns on my system. I don't know why. Back to the small arrow.

edit 2.

Got it. The trick is to have Iconcache.db created as I introduce the registry change. :huh: Then it persists. But as soon as I install something and IconCache changes, it'll probably go off the rails again.

 

[agonzalez]

How to Change, Remove, or Restore the Windows 7 Shortcut Arrow Overlay

My problem was that playing around with Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover Program I try removing the arrow from the icon but instead I did something and most of the icon had an overlay of a generic icon with the top right ear bent but I could see the edges of the original icon underneath. I totally forgot how I did all this. After a few days trying to fix it, I came accross your website again and "I saw the light". Running the program again helped me solve the problem and now all my original icons are back.
THANKS!!!!

By error I stated that I used the program the second time. I did use it but I followed the instructions on Option Two "Manually in Registry Editor" I used the entry "%windir%\System32\imageres.dll,154"

 

[Brink]

Glad it could help agonzalez, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounded like you may have changed the overlay to a generic icon by mistake. Luckily, it's an easy fix by changing it again.

 

[Keithuk]

The program in METHOD TWO of the tutorial below will still work in Windows 7. You might see if it can help you.

Shortcut Arrow - Vista Forums

I've used a Vista laptop for a few years and the 2. To Remove the Shortcut Arrow method from your link and it works perfectly on Win7.

I tried FxVisor32.msi on Win7 which does work but if you uninstall it the arrows re-appears so this second option is the best.

 

[saroshp]

Icon Arrows - Option 2 problem

hello:

I tried option 2 and found that all my icons now have big black squares where the arrows used to be. What have I done wrong? Can anyone help me.

Thanks, in advance.

Saroshp

 

[Brink]

Hello Saroshp, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Which option did you use in OPTION TWO?

If you used a custom .ico file of your own, did you leave the icon at the path you entered in the registry?

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing all of this registry location to see if anything may stand out as a cause.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[saroshp]

Icon Arrow Black Squares

Brink:

Thank you very much for your response.

I have attached an .doc file with my registry entry. I did not place a .ico file at that location because all I wanted to do was to remove the arrow & I was under the impression that the ",50" in the registry Entry would do just that. If I need an Icon file, could you please let me know where I could download one from.

Hope it sheds some light on how I have mucked things up. Thanks for helping.

Regards,
Saroshp

 

[Brink]

It's hard to tell from your screenshot, but make sure that there's not a space between System and 32.
%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,50

OR

%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50


If there isn't a space and it's like above, then you might see how any of these paths below may work for other included transparent icons.

• %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,51
• %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,52

 

[commycharb]

thanks brink

Thanks dude I had done this before (Making the arrows invisible) but couldn't seem to get it to work. If I set it to .....50 then the arrows would show up as big black boxes. The small arrow and large arrows would work fine but not the transparent one. Any way waded through the pages and found the -50 option for the string 29 and it worked like a charm. recently did a scan with security essentials and did a disk cleanup and the computer rebooted for updates so don't really know what caused it but thanks for providing me with the toolz to fix the problem myself.

 

[Brink]

Glad it could commychard, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[Benjamin123]

Thanks, it works on Option 2!

 

[boohbah]

are you the same benjamin hall that was expelled from here a while back...
if so can we have another epic thread it was epic.

http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/119724-epic-thread.html

 

[Benjamin123]

No, I'm a different Benjamin...

 

[boohbah]

ah well.

 

[ElectricHuman]

Can I remove icon's Arrow not for all Shortcuts but only for single Shortcut?

 

[Brink]

Hello ElectricHuman, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Unfortunately no. It's an all or none setting.

 

[Keithuk]

OPTION ONE installs a program to remove the short-cut icons but its running all the time if you uninstall it and the short-cut icons come back so its a waste of resources.

OPTION THREE works great its just a reg file and a blank icon in the Windows folder. and it also works on Windows 8. In fact it works on my Vista, Win7 and Win8 a really simple way to do it.

 

[Brink]

Hello Keith,

Just a FYI, but that's not true about OPTION ONE.

The program does need to be installed to run it, but the program does not run all the time in the background, not does it need to. If you uninstall the program, it does not undo what changes you made to your shortcut arrow.

The program is not required to be running or stay installed to keep your changes made to the shortcut overlay icon.

 

[Yoyodude1124]

If I delete the Shell Icons key, will it restore the default arrow, or will it cause problems?