I have a question about Get rid of Shortcut Residue:

I deleted all registry references to IsShortcut as suggested, and lost all of my "favorites" along with the arrows. After restoring a backup of the registry, I got them back, along with the arrows. Is there a way I can edit the registry to lose the arrows but retain my favorites links? (Thanks, I love this site)

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You posted the following message to the Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/n1020460839 Open the Registry by running REGEDIT.EXE , which you will find at C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\REGEDIT.EXE & which you can also put onto your Start Menu, and go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ lnkfile ... and delete the value ... IsShortcut HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ piffile ... and delete the value ... IsShortcut Close the Registry Editor and Re-Boot your computer. Nice ;-) Just like Windows 3.1 Like coming home.


On Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 12:03 pm, drybo wrote:
>I have a question about Get
>rid of Shortcut Residue:

>I deleted all registry references to IsShortcut as suggested, and lost all of my
>"favorites" along with the arrows. After restoring a backup of the registry, I got
>them back, along with the arrows. Is there a way I can edit the registry to lose
>the arrows but retain my favorites links? (Thanks, I love this site)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Download and install Tweakui from the software section of the forum. It has a feature to show arrows, light arrows, or no arrows.


On Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 12:03 pm, drybo wrote:
>I have a question about Get
>rid of Shortcut Residue:

>I deleted all registry references to IsShortcut as suggested, and lost all of my
>"favorites" along with the arrows. After restoring a backup of the registry, I got
>them back, along with the arrows. Is there a way I can edit the registry to lose
>the arrows but retain my favorites links? (Thanks, I love this site)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This probably happened because you either installed a recent Critical Update or are running IE6. Neither Tweakui nor editing the Registry fixes the problem. Go to www.nonags.com and download the freeware program Windows Configurator. Under the System tab you will find options to show the arrow on .lnk and .pif icons. The boxes will be unchecked by default. Check the boxes, click Apply, then uncheck the boxes and click Apply.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

A recent Windows Critical Update overrides the tweak in TweakUI. This has been the cause of much pain, suffering and anguish to many people who have nothing more important to worry about than whether or not their shortcuts have little arrows on them.

Paul D

I deleted the IsShortcut values ONLY in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile & piffile as suggested and it worked like a charm. Thanx kindly for the responses! I also have a shortcut to a webpage on my desktop and that arrow remained. Any ideas on how to lose it by editing the registry without any software downloads?


On Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 1:08 pm, Iain wrote:
>You posted the following message to the Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum:
>http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/n1020460839
>
>Open the Registry by running REGEDIT.EXE , which you will find at C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\REGEDIT.EXE
>& which you can also put onto your Start Menu, and go to:
>
>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ lnkfile ... and delete the value ... IsShortcut
>
>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ piffile ... and delete the value ... IsShortcut
>
>Close the Registry Editor and Re-Boot your computer.
>
>Nice ;-) Just like Windows 3.1 Like coming home.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This has been the cause of much pain, suffering and anguish to many people who have nothing more important to worry about than whether or not their shortcuts have little arrows on them

Oh brother... here's Mr. sensitivity again... and this is one of his milder replies...

These folks, who ask about the shortcut arrows, certainly don't have any basis (or right) to do so, do they? Shame on them, for being concerned with something like an 'appearance' tweak.

So one of Tweakui's tweaks suddenly doesn't work... all the more reason to criticize 'em, eh? The nerve of these people asking questions... hoping for an answer.... and coming to the forum to get one....

Did it ever occur to you that some users may not know why this occurred and that it may be connected to more important issues? And, perhaps they might be new users?

So what, if these shortcut arrows are less important than other issues. So what if it's frequently asked about. And it really doesn't matter whether you rename or delete the 'IsShortcut' strings. Simply answer the question and leave out your insensitive bs.

You have the unmitigated gaul to criticize these folks for having nothing more to worry about...?

You are the one who has nothing more important to worry about except having plenty of time to compose and add your sarcasm.

It's not that people are so worried about it, as if it were a major problem. There 
are people that like a clean looking desktop, of which I'm one. You're probably one 
of those that doesn't care about detail. 

Everyone's different, and there appears to be quite a number of people that like 
a clean desktop. I agree that they shouldn't be criticized for it.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

My my, folks are sensitive on the 98 forum!!!


On Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 4:49 pm, Paul D wrote:
>A recent Windows Critical Update overrides the tweak in
>TweakUI. This has been the cause of much pain, suffering and anguish to many people
>who have nothing more important to worry about than whether or not their shortcuts
>have little arrows on them.
>

>color=#3366FF>Paul D

There are really only three places you need to concentrate on when getting rid of shortcut arrows: piffile, lnkfile and InternetShortcut...all of which are found in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. piffile is for DOS shortcuts lnkfile is for windows shortcuts InternetShortcut...wel, that's obvious. Deleting the IsShortcut value from the first two KEYS will present no adverse effects and will get rid of the arrows for their respective shortcut icons. As you found out, the last one is a little tricky. When you delete the IsShortcut value from the InternetShortcut KEY, your favorites will seem to disappear. They don't really disappear, they just seem to. If you navigate to your windows folder and look inside of the favorites folder, you will see that they are there. They will also be there when you try to access them from the menu bar in Explorer and Internet Explorer. The only place they disappear from is the start menu - favorites folder. A simple solution is to move your Favorites folder from the Windows folder to the Start Menu folder. By doing this, they will show up in the top portion of tour Start Menu rather than the bottom. Windows should automatically update the registry to the change so that future saved favorites will go there as well, but double check by going to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" and "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" and check the Favorites value to make sure that the data is the correct path (C:\Windows\Start Menu\Favorites and %SYSTEMROOT%\Start Menu\Favorites, respectively). Then just turn off your startmenu favorites (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced "StartMenuFavorites"="0"). Hope this helps and isn't too wordy.


On Sunday, June 23, 2002 at 12:03 pm, drybo wrote:
>I have a question about Get
>rid of Shortcut Residue:

>I deleted all registry references to IsShortcut as suggested, and lost all of my
>"favorites" along with the arrows. After restoring a backup of the registry, I got
>them back, along with the arrows. Is there a way I can edit the registry to lose
>the arrows but retain my favorites links? (Thanks, I love this site)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi, I'm new entry to this issue. I updated my system witht he same Critical Update and it will not allow me to modify the appearance or remove the arrows through TweakIU or any other program. I do not want to eliminate the arrows completely but would like to be able to modify them. Any ideas. Would uninstalling the Critical Update do the trick? Thanks.


On Thursday, August 1, 2002 at 1:03 pm, Brentsen wrote:
>There are really only three places you need to concentrate on when getting rid of
>shortcut arrows: piffile, lnkfile and InternetShortcut...all of which are found in
>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.
>piffile is for DOS shortcuts
>lnkfile is for windows shortcuts
>InternetShortcut...wel, that's obvious.
>Deleting the IsShortcut value from the first two KEYS will present no adverse effects
>and will get rid of the arrows for their respective shortcut icons.
>As you found out, the last one is a little tricky. When you delete the IsShortcut
>value from the InternetShortcut KEY, your favorites will seem to disappear. They
>don't really disappear, they just seem to. If you navigate to your windows folder
>and look inside of the favorites folder, you will see that they are there. They will
>also be there when you try to access them from the menu bar in Explorer and Internet
>Explorer. The only place they disappear from is the start menu - favorites folder.
>A simple solution is to move your Favorites folder from the Windows folder to the
>Start Menu folder. By doing this, they will show up in the top portion of tour Start
>Menu rather than the bottom. Windows should automatically update the registry to
>the change so that future saved favorites will go there as well, but double check
>by going to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
>Folders" and "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
>Shell Folders" and check the Favorites value to make sure that the data is the correct
>path (C:\Windows\Start Menu\Favorites and %SYSTEMROOT%\Start Menu\Favorites, respectively).
>Then just turn off your startmenu favorites (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
>"StartMenuFavorites"="0"). Hope this helps and isn't too wordy.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I don't want to get rid of the arrows. I want to be able to modify them. (Color, shape, etc.) The critical update that I downloaded and installed doesn't have an uninstall option and changed something with the arrowws that I cannot see.


On Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 2:35 pm, Ian wrote:
>
>Hi, I'm new entry to this issue. I updated my system witht he same Critical Update
>and it will not allow me to modify the appearance or remove the arrows through TweakIU
>or any other program. I do not want to eliminate the arrows completely but would
>like to be able to modify them. Any ideas. Would uninstalling the Critical Update
>do the trick?
>
>Thanks.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I found a fix for this issue. This behavior may occur if you install some security updates such as March 7, 2002 or security update313829.TheSecurity updates will update the shell32.dllfile. When you use Tweak UI to change the shortcut arrow, it may use the icons in theshell32.dll file to replace the file icon. However, since the shell32.dll file is updated and the Tweak UI is designed for the original shell32.dll file, the changes will not work for the new shell32.dll. You have to replace the original shell32.dll file. 1.     Click Start, click Run, type "sfc" (without quotation marks) in the Open box, and click OK. 2.      Click "Extract one file from installation disk", type the file’s name "shell32.dll" (without quotation marks), and click Start. 3.      Click the Browse button to select the win98 folder on the Windows 98 CD in the Restore from box.        (For Example, E:\win98.) 4.      Click the Browse button to select the folder ":\\system" in the Save file in box, and click OK. (Here is the drive you installed Windows 98. is the folder you installed Windows 98.)


On Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 2:44 pm, Ian wrote:
>I don't want to get rid of the arrows. I want to be able to modify them. (Color,
>shape, etc.)
>The critical update that I downloaded and installed doesn't have an uninstall option
>and changed
>something with the arrowws that I cannot see.
>

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