How to delete or change the arrow on the Windows 7,8 and 10 Shortcut icons

On Windows, Shortcut icons often have a small arrow. Suppose if you don't like these little arrows, you can remove them by editing the Windows Registry settings. However, how to set these changes may not be safe for your computer.

Here are some simple ways to delete or change the arrow on the Shortcut icon.

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Note: These ways can be applied on Windows 7,8 and 10.

1. Edit the Registry manually

First on the Start Menu, type the keyword regedit into the Search box and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer

In the Explorer key, find the child key called Shell Icons .

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If you can't find the Shell Icons key, you can create a new key by right-clicking on the Explorer folder icon, then selecting New => Key and naming the key as Shell Icons.

Next, create a new value for key Shell Icons. Right-click the Shell Icons folder and select New => String Value and name this new value 29.

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Next proceed to modify the value. Double click on Value 29 , then copy and paste the following command into the Value Data box to delete the arrow on the Shortcut icon:

% windir% System32shell32.dll, -50

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Click OK to exit Registry Editor.

Finally proceed to restart your computer to save the changes.

Also, if you want to re-display the arrow on the shortcut icon, simply delete the Value 29 that you created or deleted the key Shell Icons.

Also, if you want to change the arrow size (on Windows Vista, the arrow on the shortcut icon is pretty big .), you just need to enter the following command into the 29 Value key you created:

% windir% System32shell32.dll, -16769

Then close the Registry Editor window and restart your computer.

2. Download Windows Shortcut Arrow Hacks

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If you do not want to use the Registry editing method manually, you can download the Windows Shortcut Arrow Hacks application to your computer, install and use.

Download Windows Shortcut Arrow Hacks to your computer here.

In the ZIP file there are 3 options to choose from: Delete arrow, change arrow size or restore arrow on Shortcut icon.

Select one of the 3 options that you want to use and then double-click on that option, follow the on-screen instructions and restart your computer.

3. Using the 3rd application

The easiest way to remove the arrow on the shortcut icon is to use the support of the 3rd application.

With Windows 10, you use the application: Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10.

With Windows 8, you use UWT 3 application.

With Windows 7 you use UWT 2.2 application.

These applications are Portable, so you do not have to install, just download these applications, run the application and start editing.

To delete the arrow on the shortcut icon with Ultimate Windows Tweaker, select Customization in the left pane, then click on the File Explorer tab and select "Remove Shortcut Arrows From Shortcut Icons" .

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If you want to show the arrow on the Shortcut, perform the same steps, but select the Restore Shortcut Arrows To Shortcut Icons option.

Refer to some of the following articles:

1. How to activate Dark Mode on Windows 10?

2. Instructions for completely removing Onedrive application on Windows 10

3. 3 ways to hide recovery partition (Recovery) on Windows 10 / 8.1 / 7

Good luck!