42. Remove Shortcut Arrows From Desktop Icons

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Find those little arrows on the shortcut icon on your desktop irritating? Well here is a simple freeware application that will remove them for you with the minimum of fuss.

While a hack hasn't yet been forthcoming I have located two free software applications that will remove the arrows from the Windows Vista desktop. They are as follows:

• Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover.
• Tweak VI.

Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover

The Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover has been developed by Rich Crusco of Frameworkx.com. You can download it via this link:

1/ Download the Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (fxvisor for short) and save it to your Documents folder.

2/ As the file is zipped the first thing you need to do is un-zip it, so Right Click on the zipped file and, from the dropped down menu, select the Extract All option.

3/ Accept the default folder suggested by Vista to extract your zipped files to.

4/ Once the file has been unzipped, Click on the unzipped FxVisor folder to display the application file.

5/ Now Right click on the FxVisor.exe file and, from the drop down menu, click on the Run As Administrator option.

6/ Vista's User Account Control will pop up for you to give the application permission to run.

7/ Once the relevant administrator permission has been given the Vista Shortcut Overlay remover interface will appear.

8/ To remove the arrows from the desktop shortcuts click on the No Arrows option and then click the Apply button.

9/ Finally restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

Tweak VI

An alternative option is to use and application called Tweak VI from Totalidea software

http://www.tweakvi.com

There is a FREE Basic edition that enables you to not only remove the arrows from desktop icons, but also to tweak other parts of the Windows Vista environment.