Shortcut Arrow Icon - Change, Remove, or Restore in Windows 10  

ph1l said:

It seems after weeks of trial and error I’ve finally found a solution to this desktop icon problem that works for me. I tried all the varying string 29 value remedies and ended up with all the associated errors. Black squares over the icons, white squares over the icons and even no icons at all. Sure they looked like a solution after one restart but the error was soon back again after that. The one method I hadn’t tried was the blank icon fix and it looks like a winner.
So thanks to all the posters here for a solution that appears to be working.

These are the steps I used. Hopefully it will help others.

Before starting download the blank icon from post #105 (page 11). Call it BlankIcon, for ease of identification, and place it in a folder of your choosing. C:\Windows\system32 is where I put mine. Sort of sounds like where it should go although I don’t think it matters.

1. Press windows key + r to open Registry Editor and type in regedit then choose OK
2. When prompted Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your PC?, choose Yes
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
4. Right click on Explorer and using the dialog menu choose New > Key and name it Shell Icons. Press Enter.
5. Click on Shell Icons and in the right pane right click on an empty area, and click on New > String Value. Name it 29.
6. Double click on the 29 String Value to modify it. You should see a blank box called Value data.
7. In the Value data box enter C:\Windows\system32\BlankIcon.ico or the path where you saved your Blank Icon.
8. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. Scroll all the way down to Windows Explorer. Click once and press restart or reboot the computer or log off and on to complete the task.

I’m guessing this will need to be done every time there’s a Windows 10 major update.

I tried all the suggestions and what worked for me was to make the new Key and put the 29 string value in and nothing else.

That works so far

This just happened to me on a cumulative update. At first they were black icons and after a shutdown removing battery and all plugs for about 5-10 minutes everything was gone. Than suddenly came back with clear icons on the next reboot. I haven't tried the method above yet but hope it works out.

Instead of using the value; %windir%\System32\imageres.dll,-17 ,
USE THIS ONE: %systemroot%\system32\shell32.dll,50
Tada

I tried many things (including for example Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4.2.2), but icons kept going bad. For me, so far, the solution has been:

Copy BlankIcon.ico (post #105) to C:\SomeFolder (not under C:\Windows or C:\Windows\system32 because they are often protected folders) and go to RegEdit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ and if not found, create a key "Shell Icons" there. There see or create a string "29". The value for that is C:\SomeFolder\BlankIcon.ico – then goto Task Manager and find Windows Explorer under the Processes tab. Do right-click Restart on that too see the change.

jimhoyle said:

I tried many things (including for example Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4.2.2), but icons kept going bad. For me, so far, the solution has been:

Copy BlankIcon.ico (post #105) to C:\SomeFolder (not under C:\Windows or C:\Windows\system32 because they are often protected folders) and go to RegEdit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ and if not found, create a key "Shell Icons" there. There see or create a string "29". The value for that is C:\SomeFolder\BlankIcon.ico – then goto Task Manager and find Windows Explorer under the Processes tab. Do right-click Restart on that too see the change.

Finally, a solution works for me. I have tried many other methods, icons always broke and had black square on them after reboot.

Thanks!

Lixun said:

Hi, I see you do lots of tutorials that are really good, is there any way to remove the shield overlay or replace it with blank.ico maybe with regedit in a similar way to how the shortcut overlay can be removed. I really hate how its covering up 1/4 of my icons on the desktop.

I know about the elevated shortcut method and while this did remove the shield, the executable did not work properly afterward, its a launcher to an online game and after using the elevated shortcut it started downloading files and did not start properly. Running the launcher from the original location also did not work until the task was deleted, an error message would show saying "versions can't be compared". I have also turned off uac to the minimum setting and reset the icon cache to no change, and checking the run as administrator in compatibility but nothing is getting rid of the shield.

Thank you for your time

I have found the VISTA SHORTCUT MANAGER works as well, even though in using windows 10 pro 64.just putting my 2 cents in.

spyder

herebey a new solution to get rid of those ugly arrows and dont get a black square?just a transparant overlay that stay transparant and keep your links working!
regedit/local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version/explorer/shell icons/29/%windir%\System32\imageres.dll,197/restart/goodluck
grtz peter

I think I fixed it PERMANENTLY now, what I did was: made a copy of 'blank.ico' and pasted it into my System32 folder, and rebooted and it seems to work with the appropriate REGEDIT command HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/current version/Explorer/Shell icons/ then used the MODIFY STRING VALUE on the 29 to read this %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,50 and that works...... somehow mine got erased, but now its fine.....Hope this helps, ADMIN PRIVELEDGES MUST BE USED to access this folder and for the REGEDIT command to be permanent....