- How to Clear / Remove Unwanted Items from “Hide Inactive Icons” Customization Box History in Notification Area of Windows. UPDATE: This tutorial will also help.
- A lot of us have an habit of throwing files on the desktop for quick access. What happens when the desktop gets cluttered and there is no more space to add.
- Once in a while, the shortcut icons on the Windows desktop may suddenly been changed or became blank or
![Vista Desktop Not Showing Icons Vista Desktop Not Showing Icons](http://www.watchingthenet.com/wp-content/uploads//wnsetup10.jpg)
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Remove Shortcut Arrows from Desktop Icons in Windows. In all versions of Windows, whenever you place a shortcut on the desktop, it will overlay an arrow in the bottom left- hand corner as a visual sign that it’s a shortcut.
If you don’t care to have that arrow, you can remove it in a couple of different ways. In this article, I’ll talk about a registry hack and also about a freeware utility that gets the job done. Remove Shortcut Icon via Registry. I mention the registry hack first because it’s the quickest and easiest way to get rid of the arrows without having to install any third- party programs.
It works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 without any issue. You do have to be a little comfortable using the registry, but it’s really straightforward. Click on Start and type in regedit in the search box.
On Windows 8, go to the Start Screen and starting typing regedit. Now navigate to the following key: HKEY. If it’s not there, right- click on Explorer in the left- hand pane and choose New – Key.
A new key will appear in the left- hand menu and you’ll have to give it a name. Now type in Shell Icons with the capitalization shown in the screenshot above. Then click on Shell Icons in the left pane and you’ll see just a key named Default in the right- hand pane. Right- click on any white area in the right- pane and choose New – String. Value. Change the name to the number 2. Enter. Then double- click on the entry to bring up the key editor. In the Value Data field, go ahead and copy and paste the following: %windir%\System.
Desktop icons are not Showing Question. My desktop icons are not showing. Lots of my programs also not showing in start menu as well. Solved Answer.
Click OK and close out the registry editor. Now just log off and log back in or restart your computer and the arrows should be gone from your desktop icons if done correctly. This will also work on 3. Windows. Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor.
Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor is a nifty little program is my favorite because it not only works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 3. Once you download it, just unzip the files and then navigate to the appropriate directory for your OS and platform.
There are 3. 2 and 6. Windows 7 & Vista and the same for Windows 8. Once you run the EXE file, you’ll get a simple dialog as shown below where you can choose from one of four options. The classic arrow is a smaller arrow than the default one and you can also choose a custom image if you want something other than an arrow to show up on the icon.
The quickest and easiest way to hide and unhide your desktop icons on your laptop. If you have a nice desktop wallpaper that you like (e.g. I have received many emails and comments from various AskVG readers about this annoying. This quick and easy tutorial will walk you through the steps to fix a file. It’s taken you by surprise. All the desktop icons, links and files have disappeared! Have they been deleted? Are they lost? I understand the immensity of the.
![Vista Desktop Not Showing Icons Vista Desktop Not Showing Icons](https://support.hp.com/doc-images/29/c01271863.gif)
The nice thing about this program is that you don’t even have to log off for it to work. Once you select the radio button, the desktop is automatically updated and you’ll see the arrows have disappeared. Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover. Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover basically takes the registry hack and wraps it into a small program.
This little freeware application is by no means a stunning piece of software with loads of features, etc, but then again it’s usually the simple applications that everyone loves. The only downside is that it only works on 3. Windows. The program is very simple to use and does it’s one job very well. You can either shrink the arrow size for the arrow shortcuts or remove them altogether from your icons. Choose one of the four options from the list and click Apply. You can also check the box at the bottom, which will remove the word “shortcut” when you create new shortcuts on the desktop. Now go ahead and log off your computer and log back on.
Your arrows should either be gone or be reduced in size. I also tried to run this program on Windows XP, but it didn’t allow me to. If you want to remove the shortcut arrows from Windows XP desktop icons, you’ll need to check out my post on tweaking Windows XP using Tweak UI for XP.
You can also tweak many other settings using the Tweak UI program.
Desktop Icons not Working in Windows 1. Are you facing and issue, where you find that your desktop icons are not working or showing in Windows 1. Usually, this happens if the file associations are messed up. Before telling you how to fix it, I will in brief, talk about File Associations.
If you have been working on computers for long, you can identify the applications needed to open certain files just by looking at their extensions. By default, file extensions are not shown in Windows Explorer. You have to go to Folder Options and uncheck Hide Extensions for Known File Types.
The last two words of the option explain it all. File extensions are used to recognize file types. That is, if a file has. Notepad, Word or even Microsoft Word.
Pad/Write. However, I recommend turning the visibility of extensions off, as many users might not be able to deal with them. There is always a possibility that you rename a file and overwrite the file extension – thereby, leaving it with no extension. In this case, Windows will present you with a dialog box when you double- click the file. The dialog box will ask you to select a program to open the file.
The overwriting of file extensions is actually disassociating the file from regular applications and somewhat similar to the problem of desktop links not working in Windows 8 . If you right- click any desktop icon and click on Properties, you will get a Properties dialog box with the Shortcut tab selected. If it is not, select the Shortcut tab to see the program it is associated with. Most of the shortcuts, whether on the desktop or elsewhere, have the extension “. Do not confuse it with the capital case of alphabet “i”. It is – in fact – the lowercase of the alphabet “L”. That is supposed to mean .
This is where many get confused when setting up file associations as the characters look similar. Fix . lnk File Association. Normally, most of us know which file types need what apps.
If not, the option of searching the Internet is always there. Just open the Default Programs under All Programs in Start Menu and set up the file association.
You can also use the Default Programs to make a file type open in a different application rather than having it open in what Microsoft decided is best for you. In the case of desktop icons not working, however, you need to know what applications are required to open each type of icon. If you know, you can simply use the right- click - > Properties to set up the default program. Just browse Program Files – in the system drive – using Windows Explorer and copy the path of the application related to the desktop icon or shortcut. In the Properties dialog box, paste the path followed by the app’s executable name (see image below). To copy the path, click in the Windows Explorer Address bar, select all and then press CTRL+C. Use File association Fixer.
There are some third- party apps available in the market to fix file associations automatically. I recommend our File Association Fixer available on The Windows Club. Since is the Internet, you should trust only credible sources.
That fixes our problem of desktop icons not working. That also tells us what to do if any icon is not opening the desired application. If you wish to dissociate files associations, check out Unassociate File Types Utility. If you have any doubts or wish to know more about the topic, please leave a comment here or on The Windows Club Forum. If your desktop icons do not display on your Windows desktop, try this fix.
This post will show you how to hide or un- hide desktop icons in Windows 7.