How do you remove the desktop icon’s shortcut arrows in Windows 10?

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These are the standard desktop icons for various applications and other short cuts.

In earlier versions of Windows, TweakUI was made available to change this behavior (among other things)..

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Found the solution..

This also is a nice solution: http://winaero.com/

Hope this can help others with the same requests.

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Hey i have a solution ,

Follow my steps,

1. Click on Start->Run

3.Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,

4.After that click on Software->Microsoft,

5.Click on Windows->Current Version

6.Click on Explorer,

7.After that right click on blank space and click on New->Key,

8.Give name it ‘Shell Icons»,

9.Right click on Shell Icons->New->String Value,

10.Give name 29 and double click on it,

11.Copy that » %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50» in Value Data,

12.Click on OK and Restart the Pc,

13.Your Desktop shortcut icons arrow will be remove.

Remove Shortcut Arrows from Desktop Icons in Windows

Using a registry hack or freeware program

In all versions of Windows, whenever you place a shortcut on the desktop, it will overlay an arrow in the bottom left-hand corner as a visual sign that it’s a shortcut. If you don’t care to have that arrow, you can remove it in a couple of different ways. In this article, I’ll talk about a registry hack and also about a freeware utility that gets the job done.

Remove Shortcut Icon via Registry

I mention the registry hack first because it’s the quickest and easiest way to get rid of the arrows without having to install any third-party programs. It works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 without any issue. You do have to be a little comfortable using the registry, but it’s really straightforward.

Click on Start and type in regedit in the search box. On Windows 8, go to the Start Screen and starting typing regedit.

Now navigate to the following key:

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

Note that you may not have the Shell Icons key under Explorer by default. If it’s not there, right-click on Explorer in the left-hand pane and choose New – Key.

A new key will appear in the left-hand menu and you’ll have to give it a name. Now type in Shell Icons with the capitalization shown in the screenshot above. Then click on Shell Icons in the left pane and you’ll see just a key named Default in the right-hand pane. Right-click on any white area in the right-pane and choose New – String Value.

Change the name to the number 29 and press Enter. Then double-click on the entry to bring up the key editor. In the Value Data field, go ahead and copy and paste the following:

%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50

Click OK and close out the registry editor. Now just log off and log back in or restart your computer and the arrows should be gone from your desktop icons if done correctly. This will also work on 32 or 64-bit versions of Windows.

Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor

Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor is a nifty little program is my favorite because it not only works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 32 or 64-bit versions, but also doesn’t require you to mess around with the registry.

Once you download it, just unzip the files and then navigate to the appropriate directory for your OS and platform. There are 32 and 64-bit versions for Windows 7 & Vista and the same for Windows 8. Once you run the EXE file, you’ll get a simple dialog as shown below where you can choose from one of four options.

The classic arrow is a smaller arrow than the default one and you can also choose a custom image if you want something other than an arrow to show up on the icon. The nice thing about this program is that you don’t even have to log off for it to work. Once you select the radio button, the desktop is automatically updated and you’ll see the arrows have disappeared.

Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover

Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover basically takes the registry hack and wraps it into a small program. This little freeware application is by no means a stunning piece of software with loads of features, etc, but then again it’s usually the simple applications that everyone loves. The only downside is that it only works on 32-bit versions of Windows.

The program is very simple to use and does it’s one job very well. You can either shrink the arrow size for the arrow shortcuts or remove them altogether from your icons. Choose one of the four options from the list and click Apply. You can also check the box at the bottom, which will remove the word “shortcut” when you create new shortcuts on the desktop.

Now go ahead and log off your computer and log back on. Your arrows should either be gone or be reduced in size. I also tried to run this program on Windows XP, but it didn’t allow me to.

If you want to remove the shortcut arrows from Windows XP desktop icons, you’ll need to check out my post on tweaking Windows XP using Tweak UI for XP. You can also tweak many other settings using the Tweak UI program.

Founder of Online Tech Tips and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem’s Full Bio

How to get rid of app shortcut arrows on the Windows 10 desktop

We all have pet peeves. Some are rational, others may appear irrational to others. I am not sure where this registry trick falls into, but shortcut arrows on the desktop drive me crazy. There is just something about making an otherwise nice desktop icon busier with those arrow overlays.

This easy step by step guide shows you how to get rid of them!

What arrows?

In case you do not know what I am referring to let me explain. Since the days of Windows 95 whenever you placed a shortcut on the desktop for app or document, an arrow is placed on the lower corner of the icon. I get why it is there, at least for documents (you do not want to delete the original), but I think it makes less sense for apps. We just do not install apps to the desktop, so I am unsure why I need to be reminded «hey, this is a shortcut, not the real app».

Also since the days of Windows 95 there have been third-party apps to get rid of these arrows. Windows 10 is no different. Due to security reasons, we are not posting or linking some home-made .exe files that people have created to automate this task. There are some apps likes AVG PC TuneUp 2015, which I really like, that can do this and other things, in case you are interested.

Instead, we are going to show you how to do it the nitty gritty way through the registry. Truth be told, it is super simple and should take no more than 5 minutes.

Still, you are touching the registry so make sure you have backed up your PC just in case if you feel uncomfortable.

How to remove shortcut arrows in Windows 10

1. Open up regedit

(1) Type in regedit into the Cortana/search box and (2) select regedit at the top

2. Answer yes

When prompted Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your PC? Choose Yes

3. Navigate

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

4. Create Key

Right click on \Explorer and using the dialog menu choose New > Key and name it Shell Icons. Press Enter.

Remove shortcut arrow overlay in Windows 10

Shortcuts in Windows have an arrow overlaid on top of the icon to indicate that they are links. If you find the default Windows 10 shortcut icon too large, or you wish to change the shortcut arrow from the default blue arrow overlay to a smaller one, then you can do that easily. You can even disable the shortcut arrow completely. In this article, we will see how it can be done. There are two ways available to do this.

Download the ZIP archive which contains an empty icon. It will be used instead of the blue arrow overlay icon.

In the archive, you will also find ready-to-use Registry files so you can avoid manual Registry editing and save your time.

Extract and put the blank.ico file to any folder you want. If you use the ready-to-use Registry files or for the sake of explaining with an example, let’s use the following path:

Open Registry Editor.

Go to the following path:

Create a new subkey here named Shell Icons.

Under the Shell Icons subkey, create a new string value and name it 29. Set its value data to the full path of the «blank.ico» file. In this example (and in the ready-to-use Registry files), I have to set it to

You are done. Instead of the blank icon, you can use any other icon you like. It will be overlaid on top of the program’s icon. So, in this way you can set a custom shortcut icon.

Alternatively, you can use Winaero Tweaker. Run it and go to Appearance -> Shortcut Arrow.

There, you can apply of the following options:

• remove the shortcut arrow with a single click;
• set classic (XP-like) shortcut arrow with a single click;
• set ANY icon as the shortcut overlay;
• and of course, reset the shortcut arrow to its default icon.

That’s it. This trick should work in every Windows version starting from Windows XP.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

8 thoughts on “ Remove shortcut arrow overlay in Windows 10 ”

when i try to use your tweak to disable shortcut arrows on desktop icons, the “change shortcut arrow” box is missing. please help me with this. it has been there in the past. im using the 12.0 one. thanks for your help.

it was moved. type “shortcut” in the search box and hit the enter key. you will see it.

I did this to step by step to and to the letter, when I finished it, I noticed that my trash folder has completely disappeared off my desktop, I tried going to desktop icons settings and it says “Windows cannot access the specified device, path or folder you may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item

Note that I have admin permissions, and I used the exit explorer option

Is there a similar way to replace the blue/yellow shield overlay for apps running with admin rights?

That’s not possible.

You can find the icon in imageres.dll, if I recall correctly, and replace it with a blank one. Just saying.

I installed Winaero Tweaker 0.18. The menu is different from the above. And under Appearance I can’t find Short Cut arrow. Where has it been moved to?

It is now under “Shortcuts”.
You can also type “Arrow” in the search box. You will see it.