Green Tick or Blue Arrows Icon Overlay Displayed for Files in Windows Explorer

One of our readers wrote telling that in Windows Explorer some files are shown with tick mark in a green box and some with chevron in a blue box regardless of the file type. Here is a screenshot explaining the situation.

I inspected the ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers registry key which is located at:

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

(Note that the Icon Overlay handlers are registered under the ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers registry key.)

It showed the following GUIDs registered under it.

Subkey : OverlayExcluded
GUID : {4433A54A-1AC8-432F-90FC-85F045CF383C}

Subkey : OverlayPending
GUID : {F17C0B1E-EF8E-4AD4-8E1B-7D7E8CB23225}

Subkey : OverlayProtected
GUID : {476D0EA3-80F9-48B5-B70B-05E677C9C148}

After Googling the GUIDs, it was noted that the entries were added by Norton 360. Norton 360 v2 adds a feature called "Backup Status Indicators" which clearly identifies which files have been backed up, which files are pending backup and which are excluded from backup. This feature is responsible for the Tick mark (green box) and double arrow (blue box) overlay icons.

Quoting PCMag:

A check in a green box means the file’s backup is current, while a chevron (») character in a blue box indicates a file that’s been changed since its last backup. Files excluded from the backup set display a slash in a gray box.

If you don’t need the backup indicators feature you can turn it off by clicking Settings in the Norton 360 main window, disabling the Backup Status Indicators check box and clicking Close.

Norton 360 Main window

No Norton 360, but have MozyHome Backup installed?

MozyHome Backup program adds a green checkmark overlay icon for files which are included in your backup list. To disable the overlay, select the following checkbox in Mozy Options:

Disable icon overlays in Windows Explorer

Enabling this option hides the icons that displays next to files and folders in Windows Explorer when a file is included in your backup list.

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4 Responses to “Green Tick or Blue Arrows Icon Overlay Displayed for Files in Windows Explorer”

Chris

said this on Tuesday, September 29th 2009 12:27 am

Thanks alot, I thought this was part of the program Irfanview and had been pulling hair out trying to remove them while keeping the critical program for my work.
Bill Mateo

said this on Friday, September 4th 2009 1:35 am

THANK YOU!!! I have been suffering with the huge intrusive marks and had NO idea where they came from or how to get rid of them. It’s been awful! Now I am happy and stress free and can work with my graphics files easily. THanks!
carl

said this on Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 1:16 am

Thanks so much for this infomation, I have windows XP at work. Installed is norton 360, I know why now blue Blue arrows apear in microsoft files.
Liverbird

said this on Wednesday, April 15th 2009 12:11 am

Thanks so much for sharing this!

I have been trying to help a member on our computer support forum with the same symptoms on his vista pc, but was completely baffled as he was only mentioning picture files with the blue or green overlays.

Obviously he must have only chosen these file types to be backed up with his Norton 360 program.

He had recently upgraded to version 3 of Norton 360 and seen these icons for the first time so perhaps the box is checked by default in that version. ?

Anyway .. thanks again … a good clear article ;-)

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