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

Our last two posts were almost simultaneous. I hadn't tried your update from post #42 yet. I *have* now tried your update from post #42, and it still leaves the shortcut arrows on the .url shortcuts. To be clear, the addition from post #43 is needed.

 

LOL, yep. Ok. It's updated again now.

Thank you for testing. *Smile

 

Following tips earlier in this thread, I successfully removed the shortcut arrows using ShellFolderFix64 and everything was fine. Set a new Restore Point. Rebooted. All fine.

Next day from cold start, as I watched screen, all icons came up fine for a few seconds, then abruptly all changed to solid black boxes. JPG attached (I hope).

I'm puzzled. Anyone have a great idea on how to get back the correct icons on my Win10 Home screens (twin monitors)?

 

Hello Rene, *Smile

Since you used a 3rd party program instead of the method in this tutorial, you could do a system restore using a restore point dated before you made the change if the program's restore/undo feature doesn't fix it.

 

Thank you...it worked perfectly!

 

Thank you, Brink. Icons have now been restored, WITH the shortcut arrows. I'm not a pro at this manipulations, so I'll have to try again. Which of the arrow removal procedures is the safest and surest for a neophyte to try?

 

You're welcome Rene.

The download in step 2 of OPTION ONE in this tutorial works well. *Smile

 

It worked! Thank you!

It did not catch 3 shortcut arrows on the left monitor and 4 on the right monitor, but it got all the others.

I'm going to set a new restore point, then shut down, then start cold...and perhaps that will get the others. Thanks again.

 

Okay, Brink...

I shut down, started cold, and all came up okay. Now there are 6 remaining shortcut arrows on the left monitor and still 4 on the right.

I can live with that.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

If it doesn't remove them after a restart, then please let me know what file types they are for the ones that didn't change.

 

They are all "Pinned Site Shortcut".

 

It should have gotten URL shortcuts on your desktop.

Could you please post a screenshot of them?

 

Gladly.

Hopefully these JPG files will upload: 3 images from Washington Post and 1 from Ten Forums

 

Uh, oh. There's trouble in River City...

Using the .reg hack from OPTION ONE to remove the arrow overlay on shortcuts has some nasty side-effects:

It disables WinX (displaying the Power Menu via the <"Windows Key"+X> or <right-clicking> on the Start icon in the taskbar.)

But, wait, there's more!

On my notebook (clean install of Win10 Home x64), but not on my desktop (upgrade from Win8.1 Pro x64 to Win10 Pro x64) it also prevents pinning shortcuts to the taskbar. I can drag an icon to the taskbar and the "pin to taskbar" pop appears at the cursor, but the icon never gets pinned.

However, the good news is that the alternate method of removing the arrow overlays -- using the Blank.ico file -- doesn't interfere with either WinX or pinning shortcuts to the taskbar.

Maybe it's something unique to my systems?

 

Ok. We're just going to go back to the transparent icon method that will work without any side effects other than a transparent outline on the overlay with large icons on desktop.