This article describes how to remove or modify the overlay (arrow icon) shown for Shortcuts in Windows Vista.

Remove or modify the Shortcut overlay

Method 1

Download Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (FxVisor) from frameworkx. FxVisor allows you to either way to modify or remove the shortcut overlay arrow in Windows 7 and Vista. Here is the screenshot of that utility:

Method 2

Removing the shortcut arrow: Download blank_icon.zip and extract the file blank.ico to a folder of your choice. In this example, we use C:\Icons\blank.ico as the path to the icon file you downloaded. And then follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER
  2. Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Shell Icons

  1. In the right pane, create a new String value (REG_SZ) named 29
  2. Double-click 29 and set its Value data as C:\Icons\blank.ico
  3. Close Regedit.exe and restart Windows

Note: If the Shell Icons branch does not exist already, you'll need to create it.

Credits: The overlay icon above (blank.ico) for Windows Vista was created using the freeware IcoFX utility. Thanks to the folks at IcoFX for helping me successfully create an overlay icon for Windows Vista.

Setting Light arrow overlay: If you wish to use a light arrow for Shortcuts, you may do so by downloading lightarrow.zip (includes lightarrow.ico). Copy lightarrow.ico to your Icons folder, and set the Value data for 29 accordingly (see Step 4 above). If you've copied lightarrow.ico to your C:\Icons folder, the Value data would be C:\Icons\lightarrow.ico

Screenshot

(Fig) Shortcut overlay - Light arrow