Forum Discussion
How to Restore Missing Arrows from Desktop Shortcut Icons
My Windows 11 desktop has shortcut icons, the little arrows of which have all disappeared. Shortcut icons appearing elsewhere (other than the desktop) display correctly, with the arrow identifying them as shortcuts. I want to restore the desktop shortcut icons so that they appear correctly, with the small arrow identifying them as shortcuts, as opposed to files or folders. How can I do this? Thanks!
1 Reply
Check Registry for Shortcut Arrow Settings
- Open Registry Editor:
- Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
- Navigate to this key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons
- Look for a value named 29:
- If it exists and points to an empty icon file (often used to remove arrows), delete the 29 value.
- Restart your PC.
- Open Registry Editor:
