Jan 31, 2009

My Digital Life Editorial Team

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Workaround to Remove Shortcut Arrow (Make Transparent) in Windows 7 Yet Can Pin to Taskbar or Start Menu

In Windows 7, once user uses the IsShortcut hack to remove shortcut icon arrow overlay image, the shortcut can no longer been pinned to Windows 7 Taskbar and Start Menu. For Windows 7 user who don’t like the shortcut arrow image to appear on the icon, but yet still want to pin the shortcut to Taskbar or Start Menu, there is a workaround hack to remove and hide the shortcut arrow.

In fact, the following trick, which make the arrow shortcut overlay image transparent through registry, is the proper way to remove and hide the arrow overlay on the icon of shortcut, which is implemented in TweakUI PowerToy for Windows XP too. By using the proper registry hack below to remove the shortcut arrow, user can avoid the double items issue when right clicking on a shortcut (.lnk) file. In Windows 7, user can avoid the problem of unable or cannot pin shortcut item to Taskbar or Start Menu and other related issues.

How to Remove Shortcut Arrow in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server

Open a command prompt (with administrator rights in Windows Vista and Windows 7), and the run the following command line statement to add the necessary registry key:

REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons” /v 29 /d %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll,50 /f

Alternatively, download and apply the following registry file, which has the HEX value for Shell Icons which equals to %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll,50

Download Remove_Shortcut_Arrow.reg

After applying the tweak, download and run the FlushCode.exe to refresh the icon cache.

Important: For user who has previously use the common method (deleting IsShortcut registry value) to remove the arrow on shortcut, restore the IsShortcut registry value first as per instruction used to fix issue related to right click menu items after removing shortcut arrow. Alternatively, copy and paste the following lines of code to a text editor, and then save as a file with .reg extension and run the saved registry file to merge back the value.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile]
@="Shortcut"
"IsShortcut"=""

Related posts:

1. How to Remove Shortcut Arrow on Icons in Windows (Include Desktop Items)
2. Fix Unable to Pin App to Taskbar and Start Menu (Missing Context Menu and Jump Lists) Error in Windows 7
3. Open File Location Menu Item Is Missing or Not Showing When Right Click on Shortcut in Windows Vista
4. Disable or Remove Shell Extensions and Slow Right Click Context Menu (Shortcut Menu) Handlers or Items with ShellExView
5. Trick to Remove or ‘Unpin’ Irremovable Programs or System Folders from Windows 7 Start Menu