Remove
Shortcut Arrow Overlay
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| Judging
from the number of requests I get asking how to
remove the arrow overlay from Windows 7 shortcuts,
those little arrows must really irritate a lot of
users. There are a number of software applets
designed specifically for this procedure, both paid
and shareware, but the majority of the requests I
receive want to do it without installing an
application. That's fair enough since I wouldn't
want to clutter up the system with an installed
application for a one time use. Successful
completion of this procedure will result in -- all
-- of the shortcuts on your system having the arrow
removed. You can't selectively remove the arrow from
a few shortcuts and leave it in place on a few other
different shortcuts. There are a few different ways
to do this. I'll outline two of them below and
explain any advantages or disadvantages. |
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Method One |
| On the
plus side, this is the easiest method and requires
absolutely nothing except your time. On the negative
side, it does require editing the registry, and
anytime you muck around in the registry there is a
chance you can screw things up or even make the
system unusable. All the standard disclaimers about
backing up and understanding the risks involved
apply. |
|
1 - Click Start and type regedit.exe in the search
box at lower left then press Enter key. Confirm the
UAC prompt if it presents to open the Registry
Editor. |
|
2 - In the tree (left) pane of Registry Editor
navigate to |
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Icons |
|
3 - If the key Shell Icons doesn't exist, right
click on Explorer in the left pane, click [New],
click [Key] and name it Shell Icons. If the Shell
Icons key is already present proceed to next step. |
 |
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4 - With Shell Icons selected in the left pane,
right click inside the values (right) pane, click
[New] and click [String Value]. |
 |
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5 - The new string value will appear in the right
pane, ready to be named. Name it 29 and press enter
as shown below. |
 |
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6 - Double click on the new string value named '29'
to open the Edit String dialog box. Type or copy and
paste the value |
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%systemroot%\system32\shell32.dll,50 |
| in the
[Value Data:] area of the Edit String dialog box.
Click [OK] to exit the dialog box and then close
Registry Editor. |
 |
|
7 - Either log off and log back in or restart the
system. Either way, after logging back in the
shortcuts should appear as shown below. You can pin
the shortcuts to the taskbar, start menu, or drag
and drop them wherever you find them convenient. |
 |
|
8 - If you later decide you want to reverse the
procedure, simply delete the Shell Icons key in the
left pane |
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Icons |
|
and the original shortcut arrow overlay will be
restored to all shortcuts on the system. |
| |
|
Method Two |
This
method is essentially the same as Method One above
except this time you'll use an icon (.ico) file you
create yourself to replace the arrow overlay. The
icon file can be anything you want to create. In
this guide I'll use two different examples; the
first a blank overlay and the second a TEG overlay.
If all you want to do is remove the arrow and not
replace it with a custom overlay I suggest you use
Method One above.
On the plus side, this method allows you to create a
custom overlay to identify shortcuts and still
requires absolutely nothing except your time. On the
negative side, it does require editing the registry,
and anytime you muck around in the registry there is
a chance you can screw things up or even make the
system unusable. All the standard disclaimers about
backing up and understanding the risks involved
apply. |
| |
 |
|
| You need a
blank, transparent icon (.ico) file that will
replace the arrow currently on the shortcut and
allow what's behind it to show through. If you want
to make one yourself, go for it. It's nothing more
than a blank, transparent .png graphic that's
converted to .ico format. When I get time I'll add a
guide to creating the icon file. Until that time,
feel free to download one of the blank icon files
below I created and use it if you wish. I've
included a number of different overlay sizes to
accommodate requests I've received, but the 16 x 16
size should be your first choice unless you're in a
special situation. |
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1 - Download or create the icon (.ico) file that
will be used to replace the shortcut arrow. Where
you save the file really doesn't matter, but I'd
recommend placing it in C:\Windows where it's
unlikely to be deleted or moved. |
|
2 - After the icon (.ico) file has been downloaded,
right click it and click Properties. Depending on
your system settings you may or may not see the
security warning shown in the screen capture below.
If it's present, click on the [Unblock] button and
then click [OK] button. If the security warning
isn't present just proceed to the next step. |
 |
|
3 - Click Start and type regedit.exe in to the
search box at lower left then press Enter key.
Confirm the UAC prompt if it presents to open the
Registry Editor. |
|
4 - In the tree (left) pane of Registry Editor
navigate to |
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Icons |
|
5 - If the key Shell Icons doesn't exist, right
click on Explorer in the left pane, click [New],
click [Key] and name it Shell Icons. If the Shell
Icons key is already present proceed to next step. |
|
|
|
6 - With Shell Icons selected in the left pane,
right click inside the values (right) pane, click
[New] and click [String Value]. |
|
|
|
7 - The new string value will appear in the right
pane, ready to be named. Name it 29 and press enter
as shown below. |
|
|
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8 - Double click on the new string value named '29'
to open the Edit String dialog box. Type or copy and
paste the value |
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%systemroot%\BlankIcon16x16.ico |
|
in the [Value Data:] area of the Edit String dialog
box, altering the string value to reflect the
location and name of the icon (.ico) file you're
using. Click [OK] to exit the dialog box and close
Registry Editor. |
 |
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|
| I
mentioned earlier this method is well suited
to adding a custom overlay you create for
shortcut identification. This is the step
where you'd reference the custom overlay. In
the example above I entered
"%systemroot%\BlankIcon16x16.ico" but if
you've created a custom overlay, just
reference its name instead. I have a custom
overlay named 'tegshortcut.ico' residing in
the C:\Windows folder, so the Value Data:
above would become
"%systemroot%\tegshortcut.ico" and the
resulting shortcuts would appear as shown
below. |
 |
|
|
9 - Either log off and log back in or restart the
system. Either way, after logging back in the
shortcuts should appear as shown below unless you
specified a custom overlay. You can pin the
shortcuts to the taskbar, start menu, or drag and
drop them wherever you find them convenient. |
|
|
|
10 - If you later decide you want to reverse the
procedure, simply delete the Shell Icons key in |
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Icons |
| and the
original shortcut arrow overlay will be restored to
all shortcuts on the system. |
| |
