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If you use Windows Vista, you might also hate the large and ugly shortcut icon overlays the operating system uses. They seem to cover up almost a fourth of the area of each icon on your desktop. I had found some solutions on some forums, however changing the icon easily and safely without additional applications wasn’t an option. To make things easier I have included a tiny REG file for Windows Vista users which will allow them to change their shortcut icon quickly.
Modifying Vista’s Shortcut Icon Overlay:
- Download ‘shortcut-icon-changer.zip‘ and Extract it
- Close all unnecessary applications except this page
- Copy ‘Arrow.ico’ into the ‘C:Windows’ folder
- Double-click on ‘shortcut-icon-changer.reg’
- Say ‘Yes’ to accept the changes being made
The setup is now complete, to see the new icon in action you can either reboot your machine or end and restart the “explorer.exe” process in the Windows Task Manager. If you wish to use another ‘.ico’ icon overlay instead of the one provided, just rename it to Arrow.ico and place it in the ‘C:Windows’ folder.
Download: shortcut-icon-changer.zip
Notice: Keep in mind that we only provide tweaks that are safe. If something provided here was to result in damaging your machine, we are not responsible. If you need help or have any questions, just leave us a comment below. We’d be glad to help!
How do I undo the changes?
It’s quite easy. I can make another little registry edit file if you would like, but you can also just manually delete the string. So go to the start menu and type “regedit”. It should launch the registry edtior. Now browse to this folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons
You should see a file there named “29” which points to “C:\Windows\Arrow.ico”. Just right-click and delete the file. And that’s it! :) You’ll have to restart the explorer or your machine to see the changes.
Hope that helps and let me know if you would like me to create and post the undo file!
I have to say I was really nervous about changing this registry entry especially with all the warnings on my computer saying to basicly know what I was doing before proceeding. It was insanely easy and worked like a charm! I’m so happy you showed us how to do this without buying some stupid program to do it for us! Now I’m hoping to find a “no arrow at all” file to replace the smaller arrow you gave us in this file. Thanks again! ~Angela
@Angela
In case you didn’t have any luck finding a blank shortcut icon, I just uploaded one for you!
http://skattertech.com/files/2008/07/blank.ico
Just save that and place it in the same place the other icon file was and it should work!
Glad you liked this tweak!
Unbelievably cool! Thanks again!
For those that might be following along and wanting to do this yourself, don’t click the blank picture link, just right click and select “save target as”. Save it someplace easy to find, like on your desktop. If you’re sure you want to use the blank one, like me, just save it here with the name “Arrow.ico”, which is the same as the original file was named. After it’s saved, just right click on it and select “copy”.
From there, I just double-clicked 3 things in a row: the my computer icon on my desktop, then the C drive on the next screen, and then the Windows folder. When there, just right click and “paste”. It’ll ask you if you want to replace the original file and just select yes to all and it’s done. Just log off and back on or reboot the computer to see the new, WONDERFUL changes!
WooooooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
~Angela
nice. hey, if u want the classic small arrow icon, you can point your “29” value to “c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll,29”. i know coz i just did. :)