Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

By Rich on August 10, 2009 (18 Comments)

Windows, by default, put a small arrow on shortcuts to indicate they are a shortcut and not a file. This feature is very useful and can help you determine what type of file you are dealing with. If you are customizing your desktop or a folder, you may not want these shortcut overlay icons as they may ruin your design. In this guide, you’ll learn how to remove the icons from the shortcuts with a simple program.

Using Vista Shortcut Manager

A simple solution to removing shortcut overlay icons is to use Vista Shortcut Manager. This program is a small download and allows you to customize the icon or remove it completely. Examples of the effects of this program are seeing below:

The program allows you to simply choose which style icon you want:

remove shortcut overlay01 Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

This is how the standard shortcut overlay looks:

remove shortcut overlay02 Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

This is how the overlay looks with a light arrow:

remove shortcut overlay03 Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

This is how the overlay looks with no arrow:

remove shortcut overlay04 Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

download64 Remove Shortcut Overlay Arrow Icon in Vista [How To]

Download Vista Shortcut Manager (Vista 32 bit only)

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

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Comments

james

I’ve just installed window7 on my computer and my windows index score is reading 5.9. my cpu & memory are reading 7.1 and my graphics is redaing 6.4. my disk drive on the other hand is only reading 5.9. I have a (WD)500GB & a(WD)terabyte drive. I’ve installed windows on both the drives and still get the same all around reading. I’ve done the disk cleanup and the defrag,But still can”t seem to get above 5.9.
If anyone has any suggestions I sure would appreciate it!
james

I’ve just installed window7 on my computer and my windows index score is reading 5.9. my cpu & memory are reading 7.1 and my graphics is redaing 6.4. my disk drive on the other hand is only reading 5.9. I have a (WD)500GB & a(WD)terabyte drive. I’ve installed windows on both the drives and still get the same all around reading. I’ve done the disk cleanup and the defrag,But still can”t seem to get above 5.9.
If anyone has any suggestions I sure would appreciate it!
james

I’ve just installed window7 on my computer and my windows index score is reading 5.9. my cpu & memory are reading 7.1 and my graphics is redaing 6.4. my disk drive on the other hand is only reading 5.9. I have a (WD)500GB & a(WD)terabyte drive. I’ve installed windows on both the drives and still get the same all around reading. I’ve done the disk cleanup and the defrag,But still can”t seem to get above 5.9.
If anyone has any suggestions I sure would appreciate it!
rsvr85

Hi James,
Please post any question you have have in the forums.
http://www.mintywhite.com/forum/
This is for comments on the shortcut tutorial Rich has written. ;)
rsvr85

Hi James,
Please post any question you have have in the forums.
http://www.mintywhite.com/forum/
This is for comments on the shortcut tutorial Rich has written. ;)
http://www.mintywhite.com RSVR85

Hi James,
Please post any question you have have in the forums.
http://www.mintywhite.com/forum/
This is for comments on the shortcut tutorial Rich has written. ;)
Saitek009

Huzzah! I was able to do this in XP with TweakUI, but it doesn’t work in Vista/7. Thanks for the program.
Saitek009

Huzzah! I was able to do this in XP with TweakUI, but it doesn’t work in Vista/7. Thanks for the program.
Saitek009

Huzzah! I was able to do this in XP with TweakUI, but it doesn’t work in Vista/7. Thanks for the program.
dvenus

Be very careful that you do this right! The XP way of removing the arrow on shortcuts can break things like the games explorer, etc. Please carefully test to make sure all things still work correctly. I used an XP tool to remove the VISTA shortcut arrow and it broke several things. So beware….
dvenus

Be very careful that you do this right! The XP way of removing the arrow on shortcuts can break things like the games explorer, etc. Please carefully test to make sure all things still work correctly. I used an XP tool to remove the VISTA shortcut arrow and it broke several things. So beware….
dvenus

Will there be an X64 version of this program?
dvenus

Will there be an X64 version of this program?
Rich

I don’t think there are plans.
Rich

I don’t think there are plans.
dvenus

Be very careful that you do this right! The XP way of removing the arrow on shortcuts can break things like the games explorer, etc. Please carefully test to make sure all things still work correctly. I used an XP tool to remove the VISTA shortcut arrow and it broke several things. So beware….
dvenus

Will there be an X64 version of this program?
Rich

I don’t think there are plans.

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