Remove the Shortcut Arrows From Your Icons

Every shortcut icon, which points to some other location on your computer, has arrow attached to it which might sometimes be a hindrance for users even though I prefer having that arrow on shortcut icons as it helps me differentiate between two kinds of icons. For those users who want to remove that arrow from the shortcut icons we have couple of methods for you:

For Windows XP users:

If you prefer tweaking the registry than follow the method below:

• Click Start, Run and type regedit.exe
  

  Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shell Icons

• Backup the key by exporting it to a file. Who knows in case you mess it up!
• In the right-pane, create a new String value named 29
• Double-click 29 and set its Value data as:
  

  C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,50

  (This is the path to an empty icon)

• Close Registry Editor.

You might have to restart the system for the changes to take effect.

If you are afraid of playing with the registry than we have a software for you which will do the work with few clicks.

TweakUI is a PowerToy which gives access to system settings which are not visible to user by default. It could be used to perform lots of actions along with removing the arrow from shortcut icons.

Download TweakUI (For Windows XP users without Service Pack)

Download TweakUI (For Windows XP users with SP1 or above)

For Windows Vista users:

Windows Vista users can use the free Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (also called FxVisor) which will perform the tweaking for you behind the scenes.

Tags: vista tricks, xp tricks