Shortcut Arrow - Change, Remove, or Restore

I made use of option 3, the reg file download,

applied the alteration, the alterations works, but every time I shut down & boot up the op/sys the desktop icons are black, the script is there but the icon has disappeared. In my case I have to boot up the program for the very uppermost icon (on my desktop) to get ALL of the icons to reappear. After doing so I have to shut down the program I started. I'm sure that this is not was intended with the registry change.

What's the fix?

*refreshing* the desktop causes the icons to momentarily appear for just a split second & then they disappear.....

oddly enough...if I make use of the *classic* small shortcut there's no issue at all with the registry change & the desktop icons do not disappear

for some reason the *-50* is not liked at all but the *-30* causes no issues

That too has been tried as well,
the -50 is where the problem occurs, but the -30 runs fine,

is there an alternative DWORD value to be entered which is not -50 to decrease the size of the arrow to a size smaller than the -30?

Nosmo said:

   Note

The shortcut icon arrows in Win 7 are actually overlaid icons. These icons live in the shell32.dll file. As it happens, the old winxp shortcut arrow also lives in this file.

   Warning

Please only attempt this if you are comfortable making changes to the registry. Usual disclaimer etc,etc.

1. Open the Start Menu, and type regedit in the search line and pres Enter.

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

Code:

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

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

4. Right click on 29 and click on Modify.

5. Type in C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,29 and click on OK.
NOTE: The 29 is the XP standard shortcut arrow number. Substitute a different ‘number’ in the data value field for other overlays or set the path to an ico file somewhere else on the hard drive.

6. Restart the computer to apply the small XP arrow, or the one you have selected, will show on all your shortcut icons.

A big THANK YOU ! to Nosmo !
I have no idea as to why, but all of my desktop shortcut icons got their arrows replaced with white rectangles with some sort of symbol within the rectangles.
When I navigated the registry path, I found that I already had a 29; I right-clicked it > Modify > and replaced whatever was there with the text you supplied, restarted, and now I have the neat little XP arrows instead of the huge ugly Win 7 arrows.
I have one stubborn task-bar icon that has been completely replaced with a similar white rectangle.
This particular icon had went to white several days prior to all of the desktop icons losing their arrows.
Thanks again.

Brink you are amazing my friend ,
thank you so much for everything you do

Frantheman777