Most of the shortcuts always on the desktop have a little arrow icon that suggests to users that it’s a shortcut. Although the size of the arrows in shortcuts is smaller as compared to an earlier version of Windows, still they’re not appealing.
Fortunately, it is possible to remove arrows from shortcuts using a Windows Registry tweak accompanied by other methods. Without further ado, let’s start with the first method:
Launch Registry Editor. For that, type regedit in the start menu search, and when the same result appears in the results, click to open it.
When the UAC dialog box appears, click Yes to continue.
In the Registry Editor, navigate to this key location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Here, you need to create a new subkey called Shell Icons. For that, right-click on the Explorer key > New > Key.
And name it Shell Icons.
Under the Shell Icons subkey, you need to create a new string value. For that, right-click on the right panel and select New > Key > String Value. Set its name to 29.
Close everything thing and restart your computer. From now onwards, there will be no arrow icon in the Shortcuts.
After that, double-click on the String value and set its Value data to this: %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50.
In case, you want to use a custom icon instead of a blank or blue icon, then you can download the icon of your choice, and following the same procedure, you can replace it.
Alternatively, you can use Winaero Tweaker, a well know Windows 10 Tweaker to achieve the same thing quickly and easily.
Download and install Winaero Tweaker using this link. Extract the zip file, run it, and install it just like any other program.
After that, head over to the following location: Shortcuts > Shortcut Arrow.
Here, you will get four different options:
All you need to do is select the No arrow and then click on the Restart Explorer button. In no seconds, the changes will be applied and the arrow will no longer be seen on Desktop icons.
Apart from this, you can also use the other three options depending on your requirements.
