Windows 10: Remove shortcut arrow icons (corrupts to black square)

Hiya everyone, I have a problem. I've been trying to get rid of the shortcut arrow icons for over 2 weeks now and no matter what I do they keep corrupting to a black square. Sometimes it works, and the icon is just gone, but it's 50/50 (actually 75/25) whether the black squares come back after a reboot. Refreshing the icon cache does nothing. Things I've tried so far:

- Added a key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons
Name 29, Value %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50
- Removed the value from key 29
- Created a blank .ico in a random folder outside the user or windows directories and had the value point to that, this was just a fully blank 32x32 image created in gimp
- Resized the blank .ico to 24x24
- Moved the .ico to the windows system32 folder and had the value point to that
- Modified the value to use %windir% instead of the full path

I *really* don't want to use any 3rd party software for this - given that they'll use the same methods I use it will just keep corrupting anyway no? Anyone have any advice?

Thanks for reading

:)

 

How to remove arrows from desktop icons in Windows 10 without getting black squares?

How do I remove arrows from desktop icons in Windows 10 without getting black squares in their place?

I will answer my own question and explain below in two parts. Part 1 will explain how to remove them. It will work, but using only Part 1, when you reboot or log back in, some icon data will be corrupted and there will be black squares where the arrows usually go. Part 2 explains how to permanently remove the black squares and just have nice icons, without arrows or black squares, every time you reboot or login.

 

How to remove arrows from desktop icons in Windows 10 without getting black squares?

Part 1 - Remove arrows once (will break on reboot or re-login)

• Type regedit in the Windows search bar and select regedit at the top of the list.
  
• In the regedit program, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  
• Right click on the Explorer folder, hover over New, then click Key. Name it Shell Icons and click enter or whatever to create it.
  
• Click the new Shell Icons folder. In the right pane, right click on the empty space, hover over New, and click String Value. Name it 29.
  
• Double click the String Value 29 you just created and give it the following value data: %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50
  
• May or may not have to reboot I forget. Check your desktop icons first to see.
  

Part 2 - Fix the black squares problem

When you reboot or login after Part 1, where the arrows once were there will now be black squares. To permanently fix the black squares problem, a short script will run automatically every time you login to fix the icons before you see them. Non-programmers can easily follow these simple steps.

• Open Notepad.
  
• Paste in the following and save it to the desktop as fixdesktopicons.bat (name not important, file extension .bat is important). Basically it deletes the corrupted part of the icon data.
  
  
• Press Windows key + r
  
• Type shell:startup and press OK. This will open a folder where you can put scripts that you want to have run automatically whenever you login.
  
• Copy the script (.bat file) from your desktop and paste it into this folder you reached by doing shell:startup.
  
• Reboot the computer for changes to take effect.
  

Now whenever you login or reboot there will be nice icons with no arrows and no black squares either.

 

Black Squares On My Icons

Hello Everyone!

I followed a tutorial to the letter in how to remove shortcut icon arrows.

After restarting my PC I noted the icon shortcut arrows GONE!.

I SHUT DOWN my PC for the day and the following day when I turned on my PC I had BLACK SQUARES on my icons.

Don't know what to do. Can someone please help?

Thank you,

Carlos.