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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
April 18, 2010
Q.
I do not like the arrow in the lower left
corner of a short icon. How can I remove it
and still leave the icon displayed?
A.
Many advanced users have this desire since
on some versions of Windows the arrow really
does cover up a lot of the icon. This arrow
is a nice indicator to distinguish the
difference between a shortcut and other
icon, and for the novice is probably a good
idea. But for the advanced user it is
usually unnecessary.
If you
right click on any icon and choose
Properties, it will become immediately
evident which are shortcuts as the dialog
that opens will have a tab labeled Shortcut,
and be selected by default. Excitable files
and other files will have dialogs pertinent
to their file type, but will not have a
Shortcut tab.
To remove
the arrow in XP versions, it is recommended
that you use the Microsoft Powertoys for XP.
The applet that is needed is called "Tweak
UI" and can be downloaded from the Microsoft
website or by clicking
HERE.
Once it has been downloaded and installed,
it is accessed from the Start Menu. It will
be labeled, "Powertoys for Windows XP. When
you click on Tweak UI, a dialog will open.
Click on the + in front of Explorer to
expand it, then click on Shortcut, and a
dialog similar to this will display:
Here you
can choose to change the arrow to a light
arrow, a user customized mark or to remove
it completely. Note the warning that any
user setting of the icon locations on the
desktop will probably change and have to be
repositioned to suit.
Powertoys
for XP actually makes changes to the
Registry, but in a very easy, user friendly
way. Unfortunately, there are no Powertoys
for Vista or Windows 7, but the same thing
can be accomplished by making changes to the
Registry manually. This is done by creating
a new key called "Shell Icons" with a
sub-key named "29", in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer
section of the Registry.
Returning
things back to the Windows default is even
more involved as it requires not only
deleting the above key, but making 3 or 4
other changes to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
registry section. Because of this
complexity, I won't go into this change any
further, but have written a small program
that will allow easy removal or restoring
this shortcut icon arrow.
This
program called "RemoveShortcutArrow.exe"
runs only on Vista or Windows 7 and can be
downloaded from the Download section of this
site or by clicking
HERE.
When it is run, you are given the choice to
remove or restore the arrow, and then for
the action to take immediate effect you are
required to close and reopen Explorer or
reboot and the change will be made then.
Instructions to close and reopen Explorer
are provided in the program as is a link to
reboot immediately. |
