Those ugly shortcut arrows in windows

[Boncuk]

Hi All,

haven't you wondered about the fact that all shortcuts in windows have this bent shortcut arrow with one exception: the recycle bin.

Here is a method to get rid of them which is well known, but might be forgotten about:

- start 'Regedit' in the windows main directory
- start search for 'IsShortcut'. The entry -> NAME 'IsShortcut' TYPE -> 'REG_SZ' should be displayed after the third repetion of searching.
- delete 'IsShortcut' (acknowledgement necessary)
- next search for 'Piffile'
- delete as before
- restart windows

This is how the screen looks before and after the 'treatment'.

Hans

 

[Andy1845c]

Not to hijack the topic, but whats "555 Timer PRO"? Google takes me to this - FileGets: Shareware 555 Timer PRO 1.2 Details at Business, Other category by Schematica Software Is that it? Is it useful enought to justify the $20 price?

 

[Pommie]

Those "ugly" arrows serve a purpose, why would you want to get rid of them.

Mike.

 

[Boncuk]

Those "ugly" arrows serve a purpose, why would you want to get rid of them.Mike.

I wonder what purpose. Every icon represents a shortcut anyway. Why add an exta ugly arrow to them?

It's almost the same as painting a mustache in your wife's portrait.

The recycle bin icon is also a shortcut.

 

[Boncuk]

Not to hijack the topic, but whats "555 Timer PRO"? Google takes me to this - FileGets: Shareware 555 Timer PRO 1.2 Details at Business, Other category by Schematica Software Is that it? Is it useful enought to justify the $20 price?

It solves the math for you dimensioning a timer circuit, also takes care of less scratch paper. The license free version has some limititations, but I guess the 20$ are no wasted money.

The link is an old version. The version I have is 1.5

 

[Pommie]

I wonder what purpose. Every icon represents a shortcut anyway. Why add an exta ugly arrow to them?

This just happens to be true in your case. Many people keep documents, folders and even programs on their desktop. Having the arrow distinguishes between a shortcut and an actual file/folder.

Removing the arrow takes away valuable information and serves no purpose other than to prettify. It also makes your computer non standard and may cause someone to delete files as they "know" a copy exists on the desktop.

Mike.

 

[Torben]

I agree with Mike. In an environment which supports true links (most *nixen) I can see Hans' point, but even then, the visual reminder given by the arrow is important. In the case of Windows, where shortcuts are badly implemented links (intended to provide some of the usability of true symlinks but not quite doing the job) this is doubly important. In Windows, you cannot treat a shortcut as a real link.


Torben

 

[ericgibbs]

I agree with Mike. In an environment which supports true links (most *nixen) I can see Hans' point, but even then, the visual reminder given by the arrow is important. In the case of Windows, where shortcuts are badly implemented links (intended to provide some of the usability of true symlinks but not quite doing the job) this is doubly important. In Windows, you cannot treat a shortcut as a real link.


Torben

hi Torben,
If you feel the need to remove the 'arrows' use XP tweakui freebie to do this and other changes.

 

[MrAl]

Hi there,


I think those little arrows came in with Windows 95 wasnt it?
Anyway, i used TweekUI to get rid of them at one time, but these
days they dont bother me anymore, and besides, i keep things on
the desktop that are both 'real' and 'links' so it does help to show
the difference right away.
In the past, the arrows came about to show the user what was a link
and what was 'real' because the underlying Windows object handler
could not distinguish between links and real objects, so sometimes
the namespace logic would think you were copying a real object instead
of a link and so would copy the .lnk file instead of the actual object!
This was ridiculous as a copy to backup would copy a dang link
file which after the copy onto say a removable disk, would point
to something on another computer! A lot of good that was.
I guess the MS quick fix was to add the arrows so the user would
know, but then in a later fix they added logic to tell the difference
between real objects and links so that an attempt to copy via a
'link' icon would actually copy the object pointed to by that link.

In any case, i still like to be able to tell the difference between my
real objects and link objects so i keep the arrows now.

 

[matk95]

This dosent seem to work in vista (Dose anything work in vista?)

 

[Hero999]

I don't see what the problem with them is.

Anthoer thing you should never have set is the 'hide extensions of known file types because it makes it harder to identify whether an email attachment is an executable or a harmless text file.

 

[MrAl]

Hi again,


Hero, ha ha yeah, i have to crack up over that one. Clicking "Hide extensions to
known file types" is like clicking "Allow hackers to freely access my computer".
ha ha.

 

[Hero999]

The most stupid thing is that it is the default setting but it's Windows so I wouldn't expect anything better.

 

[Torben]

Hi again,


Hero, ha ha yeah, i have to crack up over that one. Clicking "Hide extensions to
known file types" is like clicking "Allow hackers to freely access my computer".
ha ha.

Not really. It's a pain in the ass, but if someone has already gotten to the point where that setting would affect your security, you didn't have any security to start with.

Oh wait. You said "Windows". Never mind--moot point anyway.


Torben

 

[Torben]

hi Torben,
If you feel the need to remove the 'arrows' use XP tweakui freebie to do this and other changes.

Hi Eric!

Sorry I've not been around much lately. Two jobs keeps me busy in the real world I'm afraid.

Yeah, I've used TweakUI for years to try to get Windows to behave itself. Finally Vista just made me throw up my hands, yell "sod it all" and give up. I still use XP for the odd thing but Vista really is just a dog's lunch.


Torben

 

[Torben]

I wonder what purpose. Every icon represents a shortcut anyway. Why add an exta ugly arrow to them?

Hi Hans,

I have to disagree. Icons in Explorer windows directly represent the files in that folder--except for the shortcut icons, which represent another kind of file which is intended to represent a local link to a file elsewhere on the filesystem. It's a clumsy way of trying to copy symlinks (from Unix) or shadows (from OS/2). Program launcher icons in Windows aren't shortcuts either, although they have some similarities.

One of the many problems with them is that they are a hack and as far as the filesystem is concerned they are just regular files. Open 'em up with a hex editor. A shortcut is a regular file which just contains information which Windows can use to kinda-sorta fake a symlink.

In Windows a shortcut is a pretty specific thing which only makes up a subset of what icons represent.


Torben

 

[jpanhalt]

Torben,

That's an interesting point. I don't particularly like the arrows for program shortcuts either, but would not want a global delete to include explorer shortcuts. Is there a non-global way to address it?

Hope this is not considered too rude a hijack; it is related to the arrow issue:

Whenever I add an explorer link with icon, it disappears after a few refreshes and becomes the generic explorer icon with arrow. That is a well-recognized issue. Searches turn up solutions, but I have yet to get one that works. You can use the usual dialog to add a new icon with arrow that sticks, but I have not found an easy way to find the original icon (like the one for this forum). Have you found a solution?

John