Comments on: Disable Shortcut Icon Arrow Overlay in Windows 7 or Vista

By: The Geek

The Geek — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:58:57 +0000

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I am closing the comments on this article because of the large amount of support questions.

You are welcome to leave any computer help questions on the Forum

http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/

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By: Slevah

Slevah — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:50:03 +0000

okay… I have Vista Home Premium and UNINSTALLED a program using the control panel…. the shortcut on my desktop DID NOT disappear and now it won’t let me remove it because the program is uninstalled … How can I get rid of this! Thanks much….

By: Gabby

Gabby — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:24:30 +0000

could the black box appear because of the setting of allowing transparency in the windows options?

By: Gabby

Gabby — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:21:58 +0000

thank you so very much! Just one click after a search and google and you gave me the exact answer that I needed. (crossing fingers of course).

By: tAz

tAz — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:04:06 +0000

Hi all,

Looks like problems still remain with both Frameworkx and the reg tweak…

Has anyone tried rebuilding the icon cache after applying either method (as prev said i’m not using Vista myself at the mo). It is just too odd, even by MS standards, that this simple tweak should create such a seeming random and sporadic problem.

If the original arrow overlay is still present in the icon cache but cannot be found (cos we’re overriding it) this may explain the black box effect.

To delete iconcache:

Enable view hidden folders with Tools -> Options -> View in an explorer window
then DELETE C:\Users\***YOUR_USER_ACC***\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
Disable view hidden folders just to be on the safe side
A reboot would then be best me thinks

As said not tried it but on XP this simple procedure can fix any number of icon related ills and woes.

Cheers,

tAz

By: The Geek

The Geek — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:54:00 +0000

Because so many people have had issues with the black box problem (no clue why), I’ve removed the registry tweaks from this page entirely.

You should use the FrameworkX utility first, and it should also resolve the black box issue as well.

By: Obiewahn

Obiewahn — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:35:07 +0000

Tried your blank.ico icon and registry tweak which worked after an initial reboot – however after a second reboot got the dreaded black box. Uninstall of registry tweak had no effect and had to do a system restore to a point before applying your tweak to repair things. May try Frameworkx fix later but am a little shy about doing so now after the black box’s. I am using Vista Home Premuim with Aero enabled on a Nvidia 8400 card.

By: April

April — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:24:13 +0000

I to have the black boxes. Almost every folder an icon on the computer is black. I was just playing a game an the screen went black an the black boxes where there when the screen went back normal. I have tried to reboot, refresh, even done the system restore nothing has worked. I didn’t download anything not even the file where you can change the arrow like some has. All I can think of is it has to be a damaged file somewhere,something to do with the icons but I don’t know how to fix it. If anyone knows please let me know.
Thanks

By: Rene

Rene — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:05:08 +0000

Well, this only worked for about a week… I had a security update from micro$oft today, and the arrows were replaced by black boxes… Something got changed in the registry. So I tried undoing your change, then redoing it, and nothing… I’ll just wait for you to come up with another fix before trying it again. Thanks.

By: Tony Christian

Tony Christian — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:05:08 +0000

The Frameworkx fix worked like a charm.

Thank you for your effort.