How do I get rid of arrow in icon? 2

[Genepoz]

How do I get rid of those annoying corner arrows in Win98 icons. Why are they there anyway? Why do some Microsoft products have them and others (even non-Microsoft, like Norton) do not?

 

[echoecho]

use tweakui. It sounds like you are referring to the shortcut arrow. If memory serves, tweakui can remove this as well as placing shortcut to whenever you make shortcuts

 

[smitee]

Genepoz

If you don't have TweakUI you may remove arrow from shortcuts by:

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Search for the text IsShortcut, and remove any references to it. This means that there may be more than one occurance of the word.
Click on the desktop, and press F5 to refresh the desktop so that this change will take effect. In some cases shutdown and restart may be required.

Generally found in these Keys

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/lnkfile
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/piffile

GL smitee

 

[TopHat2]

I would advise you not to get rid of them! The arrow indicates that the item is a shortcut pointing to something, and not a “real” object such as an application or document. If you remove the arrow it can become very confusing trying to workout which icons are file icons and which are only shortcuts, it can make troubleshooting more complicated.

 

[PAndersen]

Preference : remove them, but be aware of possibility of error message in a special case :

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ARTICLES/Q126/6/31.asp

 

[Daire]

I'd be with TopHat2 on this also.

 

[mjbrown]

In Win98, you could right click on the desktop, go down to properties.
Click on the Appearence tab
From the dropdown of ITEM:, select Icon
change the ICon Size to 30, I beleive 32 is default.
This should also get rid of the arrows. Mike Brown CCA

 

[gcw1]

mjbrown,

I have win98se and what you said just makes the icons and arrows a bit blury.

Glenn

 

[mjbrown]

I haven't done it in a while, I will get on a 98 machine and try again and update with the proper procedure, funny how things in your mind go blurry when you don't use them. Mike Brown CCA

 

[Genepoz]

I'm in Win98se. I tried MJBROWN's easy Properties/Appearance/Icon solution first. Sure enough, the arrows dissappeared, but a few of the icons did get a bit blurry. So I tried SMITEE's REGEDIT solution--renaming the 3 instances of IsShortcut I found as "MEM IsShortcut" so I could find them later if need be. Upon rebooting, the arrows were gone--with one interesting exception: the icon for our Intranet ! A mystery, but I don't care.
As for worrying about which icon is a shortcut and which is not, I only need to right-click on it to find that out.
Thanks to everyone. Now I have one less thing to remind me of Bill Gates' monopolistic power whenever I see it.

 

[Guest_imported]

The way that i know works because ive done it myself is Smitee's way but the only difference is you can delete 3 entries! you run regedit, go to
START > RUN > type 'regedit'

delete the key that says 'IsShortcut' in all of the following

'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/InternetShortcut'
'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/lnkfile' and
'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/piffile'

When you reboot there will be no shortcut arrows.

 

[Genepoz]

Well. Bill Gates just won't unwrap his octopus arms from my computer. WARNING! When I memo'd IsShortcut in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/lnkfile and /piffile, the arrows were gone but so was 2% of my User Resources. I memo'd and unmemo'd them a couple of times to be sure, but there it is.
I hope the Feds nail his sorry megalomaniacle butt!

-GenePoz

PS: The Tek-Tips search engine is seriously flawed. I tried to find this thread with the keywords "arrow" and "icon" but it did not find it in either text or title. I only found it searching for my own handle.

 

[ANFPS26]

Just click on "My Threads" at the left top of the screen. You don't have to search for your posts.
And I see no logical reason for ever removing the shortcut arrows. They are there for a purpose...... I could be wrong, so don't hold that against me. At least I'm trying! I hope I've helped in some way........

 

[jsellers]

In support of the posting by echoecho, tweakui, which is a free download from

http://www.cnet.com,

is a MUCH safer and MUCH more predictable alternative to editing the registry. This is made especially true when you find out that the same guys that took away the option of changing it (Microsoft) designed the tweakui plugin.

Personally, I use the option to have a light arrow and choose not to have "shortcut to" appended to every shortcut.

 

[Genepoz]

The best reason I have for removing the arrow is that it covers up part of my girlfriend's face in her icon. :-( I'll try tweakui and see if that works.

 

[11MAC22]

If you do not want new shortcut icons to contain the arrow, use Registry Editor to search for and remove the IsShortcut value from:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile

(That's from Willy's Instructions.!)

Just passing through.!

I have an opinion...!!
BUT I disagree with it..!!

 

[Klick]

When using the Registry Editor solution be aware that it will disable shortcut keys (something Microsoft failed to mention).

 

[Genepoz]

Klick, what are you talking about? "RegEdit.exe"? My shortcuts worked fine.

 

[Klick]

When you delete the value from the registry key, the shortcut keys no longer work.

Each shortcut has an option to start with a shortcut key. For instance, I can press Ctrl-Alt-C to start my calculator. This is a shortcut key. If you delete the value from the registry key, the shortcut key no longer works.

Kevin

 

[Genepoz]

Klick: Oh, "keyboard shortcuts." Geez, we don't even have common terms for anything anymore, since Bill Gates keeps renaming things when we get used to them. I work in MS Word and Wordperfect a lot, so I tend to think of things in terms of those. Also, I don't do Windows shortcut keys because I might confuse myself with my Word and Wordperfect macro keys. But what you pointed out is good to know. Thanks.