Removing the Shortcut Arrow from Icons on the Desktop

One thing that I always hate about Windows is the shortcut arrow. Sure, it is good to be able to tell if a shortcut is actually a shortcut, but I think that I know that the applications that I put on my desktop are already shortcuts. Also, the shortcut indicator that Windows uses does not look appealing, in my opinion. With a simple registry hack, it is possible to replace that shortcut icon overlay with any icon. This allows you to create your own icon using any popular icon editor and use it as an overlay on any shortcut.

I created a green arrow that I like to use as my shortcut icon overlay. You can grab it from the Windows 7 Tweaks web site at Tweaks.com/books/ win7tweaks. Use the following steps to change the icon shortcut overlay:

1. Click the Start button, type regedit in the Search box, and then press Enter to start Registry Editor.

2. After Registry Editor has started, navigate through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.

3. Right-click the Explorer folder, expand New, and select Key. Type Shell Icons as the name of the new key.

4. Right-click the new Shell Icons key, expand New, and select String Value. Type 29 as the name of the new String value.

5. Right-click the new string you just created and select Modify. Set the value to the icon path, a comma and the icon index number that starts at 0. For example, I use C:\icons\myshortcut.ico,0. The icon index number specifies which icon you want to use in the file. (Some files can contain multiple icons, such as the shell32.dll file.) Press OK when you are finished.

6. Log off and back on, and you should see your new shortcut overlay.

Source of Information : Windows 7 Tweaks 2010