Who need the little arrows in the desktop icons?

[lifrancis]

I have always find those little arrows in the desktop icons annoying and unnecessary, so I got rid of them. With XP, there was really no problem, but with Win 7, somehow that also removes the function "pin to taskbar".

Is there any way I can remove the arrows and still keep the function "pin to taskbar"?

[dr_st]

I'm curious - how do you do it on XP?

[Neil]

I've always used TweakUI, or some such tool to remove the little arrows. But, I only used Windows 7 Beta for a little while, and never really got around to tweaking it.

[lifrancis]

I'm curious - how do you do it on XP?

For XP, I used TweakUI. For Win 7, TweakUI does not work, so I use FreshUI from Freshdevices.

[neenee]

Instead of installing a new application just to change this one option, consider using regedit:

http://www.blogsdna.com/2064/how-to-rem ... w-icon.htm

[Marin85]

I use TuneUp Utilities 2008 to remove both the shortcut arrow and the shortcut suffix for new shortcuts. I have never had any problems pinning programs to the taskbar. This utility seems to use another technique than the widely suggested one... I believe it is via the registry as well. Perhaps there are two different registry tweaks, the one without side effects. It is not freeware, but the trial does the job just as well (at least for me). The program is also reported to have compatibility issues with Windows 7, I have never had any, either, at least not for the aforementioned purposes.

There is now TuneUp Utilities 2010 (for Windows 7). I haven´t looked at it, but I can imagine that it still has those nice features. It also has a trial that may do the job just as well, worth trying IMO.

Marin

[icantux]

Instead of installing a new application just to change this one option, consider using regedit:

http://www.blogsdna.com/2064/how-to-rem ... w-icon.htm

I'd be careful with that one... Turns out in some cases Win7 won't recognize that "first" overlay image set (denoted by changing the 18 to 00) and all you'll end up with a white or black box overlay on all your shortcut icons.

I prefer the safer way by creating a transparent overlay and change the registry entry to point to the new overlay icon.

Here's all that in one package:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/36 ... store.html