I know how to change the icon for a shortcut in XP –but whenever I select a new icon it still has that arrow in the lower left hand corner. Is there a way to remove that arrow or indicate to Windows not to place it over the new icon?
Yes there is.
Just to clarify - I want to remove the arrow for ONE icon - not ALL of the icons (via the registry)
Sorry - should have said so earlier.
Yea, anyways… I know TweakUI I can do it. I’ll have to take a look around and see if I can remember how to do it without a 3rd party tweaking program.
Go here and get TweakUI. It has an option for removing them.
The easiest way is to download TweakUI. It’s a Control Panel extension that gives you a great deal of flexibility with customizing the user interface. Once you’ve installed it, run it and go to the Explorer tab, and click “None” under the Shortcut Overlay options. Click the “OK” button, and you’re all set.
Ooh, just for One icon, and not all of them? That I’m not sure if TweakUI can do. I hate that fucknig arrow, so I remove all of them.
I’m pretty sure that TweakUI will remove the arrow from all shortcuts, not just one.
So it’s all or nothing then.
Oh well - thanks!
If you just want one icon not to have the arrow, you’ll have to make that one not a shortcut. To do that, delete the shortcut icon in question from the desktop. Then, navigate to the folder containing the actual program, right click it and select Copy, then Paste the copy directly to the desktop. Don’t use Paste Shortcut, since that will obviously defeat the purpose.
…and test, test, test. A sizeable number of Windows programs will not function when moved in this fashion, either because they’re playing registry games with locating their own paths (I’m talking to you, Microsoft Office), or because they set the working directory to the application’s directory, and then look for things “beside themselves” which aren’t there for the copy.
This appears to assume that the OP is referring to an executable rather than a data file. If you copy a data file then it will work but you could develop some version control problems if you have two copies of the file out there. Moving it might be OK subject to the caveat from TimeWinder.
You could also try some combination of symlinks or hard links, which are spottily supported by Windows. I’m guessing that neither would show the Shortcut Arrow graphic.
I found some info here. It looks like they can be tricky.
You could also create a small script that opened up the file you want, and then change the icon on it to match the icon of the file.
For example, I can make a text file called “Dostuff.cmd” that has the path of an executable (say “C:\Program Files\MyFavoriteProgram.exe”. And, yes, if there’s a space in the path, you have to put the quotes around it) in it, and double clicking on it will bring up a brief Windows cmd shell and then launch the program. This would work for a data file or a directory, too (as long as the program used has a command line syntax); you’d just have to specify the name of the program to open it and the file to open. I haven’t yet figured out how to change the icon displayed or how to make the file not have to end in “.cmd” to make the shell run it or how to make the shell not pop up briefly, but someone with more Windows-fu than I might be able to.