Resolved Black Squares on Desktop Shortcuts

I apologise if this is not a new thread, but I have have little luck in finding a previous one.

I bought a SSD and installed it on my HP Pavilion dv9605ea laptop and reinstalled my legitimate (just to emphasize this as have had doubters from previous posts) copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. I intend to upgrade to Windows 8 eventually. However I am yet to obtain my copy of W8.

My desktop icons seemed a) to be very large (Desktop Res: 1440 x 900 (recommended value), 17inch screen), and b) when I entered the registry and applied the new value to Shell Icons, this got rid of the annoying arrows, after a restart.

However having switched off and restarted the next day, there were black squares covering about 2/3 of the area of each shortcut icon. The icons still worked and opened the correct programs. The program icons were not affected, no shortcut arrows.

So I removed the registry value, restarted and back came the arrows. I have searched and found that the registry hack seems to be entered differently on some websites, sometimes the value, C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.dll,50 has single '\' and sometimes '\\'. So I have tried both and it seems to make no difference. I have also tried changing the '50' to '52' and the result is the same. First restart, the arrows are gone, subsequent restarts, black squares.

Have Microsoft not had enough complaints about these annoying arrows? Why is there no sure and easy way to get rid of them?

Does anyone have an answer that works for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on an HP Pavilion dv9605ea?

PS The laptop came with Vista 32-bit installed when I bought it 4 years ago. H-P, in their wisdom, have not provided a full set of upgraded drivers, but I do not see how this sad fact can cause the above symptoms.

 

I must be really thick - it appears I cannot write clear and concise English.

In Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Performance > Settings why do Microsoft not include one of the options: "Get rid of annoying shortcut arrows on desktop icons ".

I have been criticised for not stating my problem in the past. I cannot believe that any English speaker has any doubt about what I want to do. Get rid of the shortcut arrows and leave the icons unencumbered.

I have tried your suggestions, TonyT, but I have not achieved the above result. I know that programs such as Recycle Bin, Computer and Control Panel which are Microsoft native programs do not have shortcut arrows. So they know how to stop the arrows. Why, Oh Why, can Microsoft not tell us how to get rid of the arrows on other programs and shortcuts?

For some reason, there is a registry hack which works once, see my first post, but subsequently fails to remove the arrows, replacing them with the black squares. This hack is applied to Shell Icons and one creates a new name, 29, and the value C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.dll,50. This actually does the job once, but on subsequent starts, the arrows are replaced by the black squares. TweakVI seems to do the job for Vista, but not Win 7.

If anyone has ideas, can you please be very specific about settings as I am 72 and obviously having difficulty.

 

Try this:

1. Download "blank_shortcut_arrow.zip" (3KB)
   
   
2. Extract both files in "blank_shortcut_arrow.zip" into your "C:\Windows" folder.
   
   
3. Browse to "C:\Windows" in Windows Explorer and double-click the "blank_shortcut_arrow.reg" file and then click "Yes ".
   
   
4. Restart your computer.

 

Thank you, SpywareDr. The registry entry now works, and the arrows are gone. I hope they will stay gone and not reappear when new programs are added. I trust they will not. I see that the .ico file is loaded instead of the entry I had found. I assume this means that the .ico file is run every time the computer is started. I wonder then why the previous entry works just the once and then fails to continue working every time the computer is started. Any ideas?

For anyone interested the entry is in HKLM|Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Shell Icons and is Name: 29 Type: REG_SZ Data: "C:\Windows\blank_shortcut-arrow.ico

Have you any idea why this is not an option supplied by Microsoft in Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Performance > Settings > Advanced? Do Microsoft think that we have to be told which icons are shortcuts and which are programs?

For anyone interested the entry is in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Shell Icons and is Name: 29 Type: REG_SZ Data: C:\Windows\blank_shortcut-arrow.ico

 

1. You're welcome.
   
   
2. Yes, the "blank_shortcut_arrow.ico" file replaces the shortcut arrow overlay used by Microsoft. It is still an overlay on your shortcuts, it's just a totally transparent overlay now though instead of being transparent with a little shortcut arrow stuck on it.
   
   
3. That "C:\Windows\blank_shortcut-arrow.ico" should be "C:\Windows\blank_shortcut_arrow.ico" instead. In other words, there are no hyphens or dashes, just two underscore characters on either end of the word "shortcut ").
   
   
4. When I do NOT see a shortcut arrow on a file or folder icon on the Desktop I know it's a real file or folder and needs to be backed up.

 

Arrows on Shortcuts

SpywareDr: Sorry, just a typo. You are right to correct it. Thanks.


TonyT: I think you have missed my point. Like so many people whose computers do not need troubleshooting by the professional troubleshooters, I only want the option to be available. After all there are lots of really useless (and unexplained) options on the list as far as I am concerned. This capability is obviously something that people need, or else why have the developers of TweakVI etc bothered to develop these programs?

I know that the guys at Microsoft, and PC troubleshooters need jobs, but there are lots of guys out here who can look after their computers without 'the nanny state'. We just need a bit of help to defeat the programmers now and then!

Thanks for your input and help in sorting out this problem.

 

I'll 2nd that.

Makes it tougher when asked for help.