If you are one of those people who call themselves perfectionists, or you are simply annoyed by the shortcut icons on the application icon, then you have come to the right place. In this article we will talk about how to remove Windows 10 shortcut arrows.

What Windows Developers Say

Let's start from afar. If you install Windows 10, then by default all elements are displayed with an arrow in the lower left corner. These arrows mean that the element is not an independent file, but just a shortcut. That is, a file that contains only the path to its original source. But the question is, why display this with an arrow in the corner, if everyone already understands that there are shortcuts on the desktop.

As for the developers themselves, they were asked this question on the official forums. However, the answer was not what many wanted to hear. They say that these label designation measures are standard and changes to standard elements are not permitted.

But despite this, there have been programs on the Internet for a long time that can remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts. By the way, not only programs, this can also be done manually, the main thing is to know how. And you will learn how to do this by reading the article to the end. Three methods will be considered.

Method number 1. Using the program

So, let's look at the first way to remove Windows 10 shortcut arrows. The Aero Tweak program will help us with this. This program is distributed throughout the Internet and is openly available there, so you can download it safely. Another advantage of this utility is that it does not need to be installed, it is, so to speak, autonomous - launch and use. This is exactly what we will do.

Once you open the program, you will see its interface. It consists of two areas, the tab bar on the left and the work area on the right. IN this moment Pay attention to the panel on the left, there you need to select Windows Explorer. Configuration items now appear on the right, pay attention to “Do not show arrows on labels.” Check the box, apply the changes and close the program. As you can see, it was not difficult at all. Now all you have to do is restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

So you have learned how to remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts, but I would like to say one more thing. As you saw, we only used one option in the program, but there are a lot of them. So if you are curious, look through all the settings, maybe you will find something useful. But please note that this program was intended for the seventh Windows versions, in the tenth there may be failures.

By the way, in addition to this program, you can try to remove arrows from shortcuts with the Windows 10 Manager program, more precisely, the Vista Shortcut Manager program.

Method No. 2. Changing the registry using REG files

Now we will talk about the second way to remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts. Many may think that we will do this manually, but this is not entirely true. Of course, we will interact directly with the Windows registry, but the changes will only consist of introducing ready-made files, rather than writing them ourselves. So this method is better for inexperienced programmers.

On the Internet, find an archive with files, it is called remove_arrow.zip. It is with him that we will interact. Unzip the file to a location convenient for you. As you can see, 4 files were uploaded. We are only interested in one. Here, start from what operating system you have: 32-bit or 64-bit. If it is 64-bit, then open the file with the same label.

You will see a window, click "Yes". After this, you will be told that all changes made to the registry have been carried out. In turn, this means that everything went well. Just like last time, all you have to do is restart your computer.

Method No. 3. We do everything by hand

Well, now it’s time for experienced users, partly even programmers, to get down to business. Now we will understand how to remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts without resorting to any programs or files.

So, we need to get into the registry, to do this, press Win + R and write regedit in the input field. The registry will open in front of you. Find the HIKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder and open it. Now you need to find the Lnkfile folder. Found it? Click on it. You should now see the "IsShortcut" file on the right side. It is he who displays the arrows on the labels.

Right-click on this file and select "Rename". You need to change its name to IsNotShortcut. Now save your changes. That's all, now the shortcuts will disappear, you just need to restart your computer.

Each file in Windows 10 has its own icon, which allows you to identify the file type, as well as the application in which it is opened or executed. A separate category are the so-called “shortcuts” - links to files that are located in other locations on your computer. Most often, shortcuts are created for installed applications. After installing the program, the system places a shortcut on the desktop and in the list of applications in the Start menu that refers to executable file programs. You can distinguish a shortcut from a regular file or folder using a small arrow in the lower left corner of the icon, as well as the inscription “- shortcut” in the name. And while the latter can be easily removed by simply renaming it, the arrows next to the icon cannot simply be removed. Still, there are many (including me) who don't like these arrows. This raises a logical question: how to remove shortcut arrows? The good news is that they can be removed quite easily. It will only take a few minutes from you, as well as a couple of tweaks in the registry.

Much better.

For reference: to remove the arrows near the shortcuts you will need Account Administrator. If you do not have one, the system will ask for the Administrator password when you try to open and make the appropriate changes.

How to remove arrows near icons

This procedure is performed by editing the system registry. It should be noted that the system registry is a system-critical database of low-level settings. Therefore, you should not change these parameters blindly, or simply delete different keys. Thoughtlessly editing the registry can cause the system to perform poorly or fail altogether.

For reference: Before proceeding directly to the instructions, we advise you to create a point Windows recovery. This way you will create backup copy system registry and, if something goes wrong, you can quickly return everything to its original form. Creating a Windows restore point won't take much time, but it will save you headaches in case of an error or unexpected result.

There is a high probability that this method will only work until the computer is rebooted for the first time (it will work without problems on earlier versions of Windows 10). After this, large black squares will be displayed instead of arrows, which is even worse. In this case, you need to do the following:

The shortcut arrows are designed to allow the user to easily distinguish between a regular file and a shortcut. Deleting the latter will leave the file on the system (only the empty link will be deleted), while deleting the file will also cause the shortcut to fail. Therefore, it is important to understand what exactly you are deleting - the final file or shortcut. Since you just removed the shortcut arrows, the links now appear as regular files, so there is no visual reference. To check what type of file you are deleting, right-click on it and click Properties. Go to the tab Are common and look at the parameter value File type. If it says there that it is Shortcut (.lnk) , which means you can freely delete it if necessary, without worrying about the safety of the file itself to which this shortcut refers. Alternatively, you can simply hover your mouse over an object and wait for a tooltip to appear. If you hover over a shortcut, the file's location will appear. If you are dealing with a file, the system will display its properties, such as format and size.

How to get back the shortcut arrows on the Windows 10 desktop

The procedure for returning to the original form of shortcuts is exactly the same as in the instructions above, only instead of creating a new key, you need to delete it.

How to Remove Shortcut Arrows Using Third-Party Apps

There are a large number of different programs that allow you to customize the operating system at your discretion. Often these applications take care of all the work of changing the registry operating system, so you don’t have to go into the registry yourself, search for and edit the necessary keys. If you don’t want to take unnecessary risks, we can recommend that you use the application WinAeroTweaker– a real treasure trove for lovers of customization.

There are thousands more different settings in WinAero Tweaker, but in this article we only focused on how to remove shortcut arrows.

In this instruction - step by step description how to remove arrows from shortcuts in Windows 10, and also, if desired, replace them with your own images or return them to their original form. There is also a video instruction below that demonstrates all the described actions.

Even though the arrows are on created shortcuts in Windows make it easy to distinguish them from just files and folders, their appearance quite controversial, and therefore the desire of many users to get rid of them is quite understandable.

Removing arrows from shortcuts using the Registry Editor

Note: below we will describe two options for one way to remove arrow images from shortcuts, while in the first case only those tools and resources that are available in Windows 10 itself will be used, and the result will not be ideal, in the second you will have to resort to downloading or creating a separate file for later use.

For the actions described below, launch the editor Windows registry 10, to do this, press the Win + R keys (where Win is the key with the OS logo) and enter regedit in the “Run” window.

On the left side of the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ \Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\

See if there is a subsection named “Shell Icons” in this section. If there is none, then right-click on the “folder” Explorer - New - Partition and give it specified name(without quotes). After that, select the Shell Icons section.

Right-click on the right side of the Registry Editor and select New - String Value. Specify the name "29" (without quotes) for this parameter.

After creating it, double-click on it and enter the following in the “Value” field (again, without quotes, the first option is better): “%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50” or “%windir%\System32\imageres . dll, -17". Update 2017: in the comments they report that starting with Windows 10 version 1703 ( Creators Update) only an empty value works.

After that, close the Registry Editor and either restart the Explorer process. exe (Explorer) using the task manager, or just restart computer.

After the reboot, the arrows from the shortcuts will disappear, but “transparent squares” with a frame may appear, which is also not very good, but the only possible variant without using third party resources.

To solve this problem, we can set the string parameter "29" to a non-image from system library imageres. dll, but an empty icon that can be found and downloaded on the Internet by searching “blank. ico" (I don’t post it myself, since I don’t post any downloads on this site at all), or create it yourself (for example, in some online icon editor).

After such an icon is found and saved somewhere on the computer, in the registry editor again go to parameter “29”, which was created earlier (if not, then the process is described above), double-click on it and in the “ Value" enter the path to the blank icon file, separated by commas - 0 (zero), for example, C:\Blank. ico,0 (see screenshot).

After that, also close the Registry Editor and reboot or restart the Explorer process. exe. This time, the arrows on the labels will completely disappear, and there will be no frames either.

Video instruction

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I also recorded a video guide that clearly shows everything necessary actions in order to remove arrows from shortcuts in Windows 10 (both methods). Perhaps someone will find this presentation of information more convenient and understandable.

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Returning or changing arrows

If for one reason or another you need to return the shortcut arrows, you can do this in two ways:

Delete the created string value in the Registry Editor. Set it to %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-30 (this is the location of the standard arrow in Windows 10).

You can also change this arrow to your own by specifying the appropriate file path. ico with your arrow image. And finally, many third parties programs For design or tweaks, systems also allow you to remove arrows from labels, but I don’t think that this is the purpose for which you should use additional software.

Note: if doing all this manually is difficult for you (or impossible), then you can remove the arrows from the labels in third party programs, For example,

The arrows on Windows 10 shortcuts distinguish the shortcut from the actual file or folder. Although these arrows help identify shortcuts, you can remove the arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts and then it will be visually impossible to distinguish shortcuts from real files. Remove arrows from shortcuts using Registry Editor. To open the Registry Editor, you need to simultaneously press two keys on your keyboard WIN+R. The Run window will open in which the command is entered regedit and click OK.

To remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts, open the Registry Editor

The regedit command opens the Registry Editor window, which consists of a left and a right side. First, you need to create a section on the left side of the Registry Editor; to do this, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - SOFTWARE - Microsoft - Windows - CurrentVersion - Explorer. Move the cursor to the last Explorer item and press the right mouse button. A context menu will open in which you select the item Create, and in the additional menu Chapter and immediately at the new item that appears, change the name (New parameter) to Shell Icons.

How to remove arrows from Windows 10 shortcuts

Then move the cursor over this newly created Shell Icons item and press the right mouse button. A context menu will open in which you first select the item Create, and then in the additional menu String parameter.

In the Registry Editor you need to change the value of parameter 29

A new item called New Option will appear on the right side. Change the name New parameter to 29. Then move the cursor over this parameter again 29 and by pressing the right button select the item Change.

In the Registry Editor we assign a new value to parameter 29

A window called Change string parameter will open. In this window you need to enter a value of your choice in the field %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50 or %windir%\System32\imageres.dll,-17. After that, click OK and restart your computer. After rebooting, the arrows on the shortcuts will disappear. If you again need to return the arrows to the shortcuts, then on the left side of the Registry Editor you will need to delete the Shell Icons section you created and after restarting the computer, all the arrows will return to their places.
Two blue arrows on Windows 10 shortcuts mean that the Compress contents to save space attribute is set in the properties of this file.

Shortcut properties

To disable these arrows you need to open the shortcut properties, go to the tab Are common and press the button there Other.

Other shortcut properties

After this, a window will open in which you will need to uncheck the item Compress content to save disk space. Then click OK to close all windows confirming administrator rights.

Blue arrows on folders and Windows files: what is it and how to remove it

Not long ago I came across a situation on my sister’s computer: on many folders, files and simple shortcuts on the desktop and in others Windows areas For some reason, small blue arrows appeared, seemingly directed at each other.

Files and shortcuts look similar, for example:

I’ve seen something similar myself once, but at that time I didn’t even bother and didn’t try to remove these arrows, and somehow they didn’t ask :) After quickly browsing the Internet, I found out that such arrows on folders and files are the enabled content compression function on Windows disks.

What is this function of compressing the contents of a disk (“compress disk”)? It allows you to save quite a bit of space on your hard drive, but at the same time the computer may start working noticeably slower and other problems may arise, for example, with updating.

It really saves a little space and this feature in Windows is essentially useless, and a similar opinion can be seen from users of various levels of training on the Internet.

I removed these arrows on the folders on my sister’s computer, and after a while I noticed their sudden appearance on the files of my own computer, which immediately raised the question: where did this come from if I didn’t set up or turn on anything myself??

I definitely couldn’t turn it on by accident, I’m no longer a novice user, so I could mistakenly point somewhere, not knowing where :) Based on observations and, again, information on the Internet, I concluded that these arrows are on labels and other Windows objects could have come at all, for example, by updating the system.

One way or another, you shouldn’t be afraid of this, this “attack” can be easily removed and in this article I will show you in detail how to get rid of these blue arrows on folders, files and shortcuts, where to go to do this and what to press... :)

Now let's look at 2 options: the simplest, through the usual, familiar to everyone Windows mode and way through safe mode system, if suddenly it is not possible to remove the arrows according to the first option.

OPTION No. 1 - REMOVING ARROW FROM FOLDER AND FILES IN REGULAR WINDOWS MODE

First, try this method of removing arrows and if you can’t fix it, then move on to the second method, which should finish the problem to the end.

First, look at how many such icons with arrows are on your desktop and on the disk in general, that is, first look at the desktop, and then go through the “C” drive (where the system is installed).

If you see that there are few files and folders with such arrows, maybe only a few in one place, then the easiest way to do this is:

Select the files and folders marked with arrows, right-click (hereinafter abbreviated as “RMB”) and select “Properties”.

Go to the "Others" section:

Click "Apply" in the properties window, after which another one will appear, where check the box "To selected elements and to all subfolders and files" to remove the arrows not only from the selected files and folders, but also immediately from those located inside marked folders and click "OK":

Click "OK" in the properties window (which was opened initially) to exit.

As a result, the problem will be solved!

If there are too many arrow icons, you see that almost all folders and files have this icon, then most likely the entire local disk is involved. In this case, you need to disable the compression function for the entire disk at once.

For this:

go to the "Computer" section, where all the local drives of your computer are displayed, then right-click first on system disk(usually with the letter "C") and select "Properties".

Disable the option "Shrink this drive to save space" and click "OK".

The process of unpacking all previously compressed files will begin, which may take more than an hour (if you really have too much data in a compressed state) and after completion the arrows should all disappear.

But it may happen that during the process of unpacking files you will receive a message that such and such files are occupied by some program (I had this happen when, for example, there were arrows on a WhatsApp program file, and it was open at that moment ).

In this case, you can try closing the programs to which these files belong, or follow option #2 described below.

OPTION #2 - DISABLE FILE COMPRESSION ON THE ENTIRE LOCAL DISK THROUGH WINDOWS SAFE MODE

This option should help you if you were unable to remove compression of all files using the compression function local disk. With this option, you will need to do all the steps described above, but through a special Windows safe mode.

In this mode, only the main programs of the system are launched and therefore you will not encounter an error that some files are being used by one or another program when you disable compression of this disk.

CONCLUSION

Thus, if you see arrows on folders, files and shortcuts in Windows system, this means that the compression function is only enabled to save space for separate files, or for the entire local disk at once.

Fixing this, as we have noticed, is not at all difficult, and there is no point in turning it on specifically, since you will not really save space, but from time to time you may encounter system brakes during operation or some of its failures.