HOW TO: Tweak Vista's shortcut arrows

James Bannan22 July 2007, 3:08 PM

Vista's shortcut icon arrows are large enough to almost totally obscure the icon itself. Here's a nifty tool to improve the look.

Ever noticed that the shortcut icon overlay on Windows Vista (the arrow indicating that an icon is a shortcut) is absolutely huge?

Vista Shortcuts Icons

I’m quite convinced that there’s a hidden plot by Microsoft designers to convince users that their eyesight is going, and thus buy massive LCD screens which Microsoft will get kick-backs for. That must be it.

Anyway, as with just about everything do to with Windows, this feature can be tweaked. There’s a useful little freeware tool by Frameworkx called FxVisor which is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista, and you can download the latest version here.

Download and install the app then launch it. You’ve got three options for the icon overlay – standard arrows, smaller light arrows, or no arrows at all.

Personally I went for removing the arrows completely – it actually makes the desktop look much neater. Apply the changes, log out and log back in again and that’s all there is to it.

Vista Shortcuts Icons - Gone!

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TestingVista=(:

Thank you, I was wondering if this would had worked with the same registry hack that was used back in XP but apparently Microsoft decided to change the registry in Vista once again. I'm glad that someone came up with a way to tweak that obviously ridiculously large arrow for the shortcuts. Talk about smoothing the design, they make pretty icons and wonderful backgrounds but leave big ugly arrows behind? Good one Microsoft Designers...

29 February 2008, 8:31 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend