Remove Or Change The Shortcut Arrow Icon - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

A tiny little modification to XP. If you prefer not to see the shortcut arrow icon in the bottom corner of the shortcut, use this hack to change it—or even remove it.

To delete the icon, remove the entry IsShortCut from the following keys:

HCR\lnkfile (in “lnkfile”, it’s a small “ell,” not an “I”)

HCR\piffile

HCR\InternetShortcut

To change the icon, go to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

Change the String Value entries for the setting “29” to the path and filename of the new icon. Setting this value to blank has the same effect as deleting them, but without any side effects.

By deleting the icon, Windows no longer considers these shortcuts as shortcuts. There maybe some side effect in using the shortcuts after this change: in some cases, deleting the arrow for .LNK files leads to duplicate items in the Explorer context menu. Ideally, rather than deleting the icon, just remove the file path to be on the safe side.

Beep On Print Job Errors

Ever wished you’d get some kind of warning when there’s a job error on a remote print server? Here’s the hack to make your computer
beep repeatedly when this happens.

Navigate to
HLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print

Here, a (new or existing) DWORD value called BeepEnabled needs to be set to 1. Log off and log back in, or restart, for the change to take effect.

Add A Custom Folder To My Computer Or The Desktop - Miscellaneous Windows XP Registry Hack

This hack will create a custom folder—like the special My Documents folder—and one that cannot be deleted or renamed!

Navigate to:

HCR\CLSID

Create a new key with a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The GUID is a 128-bit identifier that is usually generated by Windows. This can be a random number that is used to uniquely identify COM objects when required for a Registry entry. Examples of GUIDs are:

{25892e17-80f6-415f-9c65-7395632f0223}

{a53e98e4-0197-4513-be6d-49836e406aaa}

{e33898de-6302-4756-8f0c-5f6c5218e02e}

These GUIDs should only be used on personal machines as their uniqueness cannot be guaranteed. GUIDs are usually generated by Windows, and not manually entered as we’re doing here. If the GUID is distributed in runtime apps, there is the probability— however remote—of it clashing with the existing GUIDs.

For this example, we’ll use a random GUID:

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}.

Hence, the key value will be:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

Set the value of the “(Default)” setting for this key to the name of the folder—say “Computer Gurus Archive”. Create a new sub-key under the main key and call it “DefaultIcon”. That is, create a key called:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE

-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\DefaultIcon

Set the value of the “(Default)” setting to the filename and path of the icon file you want to use for this folder. For example, “C:\Computer Gurusicon.ico”, without the quotes. If you don’t specify a path to an icon file, Windows will use its default folder icon.

Create another sub-key under the main key called

“InProcServer32”, that is, create the key called:

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE–11CE-

BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\InProcServer32

Set the “(Default)” setting here to “shell32.dll”. Create another String Value called ThreadingModel, with the value set to “Apartment”.

There’s more! Create another sub-key called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF–

ABCD1DE12345}\Shell\Open My Folder\Command

Set the “(Default)” value here to the command that should be executed when the folder is clicked. In this case, it would be “explorer /root, c:\Computer Gurus Archive”

Create another set of sub-keys called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF

-ABCD1DE12345}\ShellEx\PropertySheetHandlers\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

Then create another sub-key called

HCR\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF

-ABCD1DE12345}\ShellFolder

Under this key, create a new Binary Value called Attributes with the value “00 00 00 00”.

To put the folder on the Desktop, add the following key:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCFABCD1DE12345}

To place the folder in My Computer, add the following key:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\

{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CEBFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

The folder cannot now be removed or renamed without reversing the above steps.