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

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Ted.

 

[bartholj]

Can't get it to work

I've been through this over and over, but can't get it to work. I've done it before on other machines with no problem. When I go through the steps, the arrows are replaces by white boxes with tiny icons in them.

The program also fails with an error.

Restore works... but I really want the arrows gone. Any thoughts?

 

[Brink]

Hello Bartholj, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might give Method One a try instead of the program then to see if that may work better for you. Just be sure to use the ones for 64-bit.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[mitchell65]

Thanks Shawn, works a treat.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Mitchell. Thank you.

 

[Whiznot]

Using Method 1, I experienced the same problem with blank icons that gbp007 reported. The mistake we both made was failure to run the reg file from the desktop. I extracted to a folder on the desktop and ran from there. gbp007 ran the reg file from his downloads folder. I do not understand why the location from which the reg file is run should matter.

I tried to without success to use Method 1 to undo my error but Method 2 came to the rescue.

Brink, Thanks for helping people rid themselves of those damned arrows but the instruction re where to run the reg file from could be more explicit.

 

[Brink]

Hello Whiznot,

Well, the steps did say to do so from the desktop, but I bolded desktop now to help make it stand out better. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out to work for you though.

 

[bhellim]

Thank you for this works for me.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Bhellim.

 

[BugOutMachine]

FANTASTIC!

The Tip # 1 took literally 30 seconds to perform and worked flawlessly! I *FULLY* recommend this over downloading some software.

 

[1992Sara]

Okay so I did exactly like in method one. Copying the blanc.ico to the windows folder and merged the 64-file. This was the result..

 

[Brink]

Hello Sara,

Did you unblock (steps 2B -2C) the blanc.ico file before copying it to the Windows folder? This must be done first, since you will not be able to unblock it from the Windows folder location.

 

[1992Sara]

As I said, I did everything in the tutorial.. Anyway I dunno what happened but after relogging two times without changing anything it worked. :/
Kinda strange but it really worked.

 

[Brink]

Sara,

Not sure what may have caused the delay, but I'm happy to hear that it worked for you.

 

[Minalee]

Forgive me if I've overlooked this, but, will this fix effect ALL shortcuts, or only ones you choose? I only want to remove the icon from select shortcuts, not all of them.

 

[Brink]

Hello Minalee,

Unfortunately this will remove the shortcut arrow overlay icon from all shortcuts. There's not a way to only remove them from a few of them

 

[glassjaw]

Thanks for the tutorials, but am wandering how can i change my shortcut arrow icon with the one Ive downloaded?
:sarc:

 

[Brink]

Hello Glassjaw,

You would just need to type in the full path of where the .ico file that you want to use is saved at in quotes at step 5 instead.

For example:
"C:\Users\user-name\Pictures\myiconfile.ico"

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[glassjaw]

yes ive done that, but when i reboot my comp. it doesnt change. ill better try again...

 

[sirpaul1]

If you don't want to download any programs:

Open the key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{63B51F81-C868-11D0-999C-00C04FD655E1}\InProcServer32] and delete the current value of "(Default)". To restore set the value of "(Default)" back to "C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL" where WINDOWS is your Windows directory.