Windows 10: Desktop shortcut icon arrow disappeared

<-Before

<-After

I upgraded to Windows 10 recently, and I've noticed something strange happening. When I boot up my computer, the desktop looks fine, but after a while, the little arrow overlays at the bottom left corner of the shortcut icons disappear. Sometimes, if left long enough, the overlay will be some weird picture (Instead of an arrow, it will be a batman picture, like from the shortcut to my Batman: Arkham Asylum games, or something else.) When I right-click on the desktop and hit refresh, it reverts back to normal, but I still want to know why it is doing this. My previous OS was Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Here are my specs if that will help. Thank you!

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel I7-4790K CPU
MSI Z97-G45 Gaming MB
16GB DDR3-1866 RAM
NVIDIA GTX-970 GPU

:)

 

Windows 10, shortcut arrows icon disappears

This problem has been reported in earlier versions of Windows after Windows 7. The problem is that the shortcut arrow disappears from icons; making it impossible to distinguish between a shortcut and the actual file. I've found the quick fix thus far is
simple to RIGHT MOUSE CLICK on the DESKTOP, then select REFRESH. That seems to restores the shortcut arrow.

 

Shortcut Arrows in the icons on Win 10 desktop

Does anyone know how to make those annoying 'shortcut arrows' on icons on the Windows Desktop disappear? There must be a way to achieve this within Windows without having to resort to using non-microsoft software. I do not like Surely Windows will allow
the user to tailor the desktop icons in this regard.

 

Not sure what is causing the behavior but you may want to see link below to restore and/or change shortcut arrow....

Shortcut Arrow Icon - Change, Remove, or Restore in Windows 10


You may also want to review the link below for cleaning Icon cache....

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuil...-cache-windows

 

I tried restoring it through the first link, and I tried rebuilding the cache through the second link. It didn't solve it.

 

You actually want those thingies ???

 

My system's been doing something similar. The following image is a collection of different screenshots over time....





I would prefer the "no overlay". It seems to change at random, sometimes showing several different iterations during a given day. Manually refreshing the desktop *never* causes it to change.

My PC is turned on in the morning and hibernated at night, with the usual update restarts. I haven't had the patience to log into a different user account and wait to see what happens.

When I first upgraded, the overlay was the grey x for some time which I thought was strange but didn't really put more thought into the issue until it started changing.

I tried rebuilding the icon cache - no change. I didn't try to restore/change the shortcut arrow because I don't really want to restore it to any of those options.

I deleted the "desktop.ini" file and I believe that caused it to settle on the classic shortcut arrow....until TH2. Since then it's mostly been the classic shortcut arrow but I noticed the "no overlay" once.

Kevin

 

Hello KrazyKomodo, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Since this has just recently happened, you could also do a system restore using a restore point dated before this happened to hopefully sort it.

System Restore Windows 10

 

The only other suggestion I have would be the increase the icon cache size....I see you have quite a few which could possibly be causing the corruption......good luck.....


Icon Cache Size - Change in Windows - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

I'll try increasing the icon cache size. If that doesn't work, I might just change the overlay in the registry to be blank. I don't like those arrows that much either, I just wondered why it was doing that and if it was part of a larger problem. I didn't want to restore to a previous date, because it's been happening for quite a while, and I've installed many games since then. I don't want to have to reinstall them.

 

Increasing the icon cache size didn't work. The problem resurfaced.

 

Hmmm. Maybe someone else will have a good suggestion.

 

WinAreo Tweaker Downloads / Software / Winaero Tweaker got rid of arrows on my shortcuts but can also make them different sizes.

 

It did it again. Could something connected via USB possibly be making the desktop refresh, making it do this?