Removing The Shortcut Arrow
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A shortcut is a pointer to a file or application that is stored in another location. When you create a shortcut, you’ll notice the icon has a small arrow in the corner. And, yes, you guessed it! This little arrow indicates to you that the icon is, indeed, a shortcut.
So here is a tip that lets you remove the shortcut arrow and it works with all versions of Windows. A word of caution before you proceed since it does require making changes to the registry; do so carefully!
To completely remove the shortcut arrow, open the registry and delete the Isshortcut from the following three keys:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut
Once you’ve made the change, Windows no longer considers shortcuts to be shortcuts anymore. Note: A security update for Windows 98 may prevent the steps outlined above from working.
2 Comments
Neal Witts
January 23rd, 2008
at 11:29pm
Very helpful thank you. I was a bit nervous doing this. However, with your instructions it worked just fine. One main reason I wanted to remove those arrows is because I make my own personal desktop icons. With those pesky little arrows there, they would block some of the facial pictures and take space up on the already small icons. Thank you for the great knowledge One suggestion, once you locate the following three; for beginners like me it would have been helpful to say double click on the target key. Then in the right window right click and hit delete. I figured it out and “wha-la” Thank you again Neal!
desperate van
February 27th, 2008
at 10:07am
Thanks a lot! Your advice has successfully screwed up my desktop. Yeah, I no longer have the arrows.
I no longer have the icons also
And windows won’t allow me to open url’s.
You’re some clever techno that’s fer sure!