Missing or Incorrect Shortcut Icons

Hello,

I am a new member and am hoping that someone can help me with a tricky and troublesome problem. The shortcut icons on my PC no longer contain the small arrow in the corner that identifies them as shortcuts. When I create a short cut, either within a folder or by using the "Send To (Desktop)" menu, it shows up as a regular folder (without the arrow) or a regular file (without the arrow and with the extension). However, if I right-click on the properties of either of these, they are noted as shortcuts.

I need to constantly check that I am not deleting the actual folder or file inadvertently, so this is not just an annoyance or inconvenience (I realize some others have posted requests that ask how to eliminate the arrow in the shortcut, the opposite of my problem).

I am am using Windows XP (update 3) and have tried: 1) using TWEAKUI to "add in" the shortcut (either as "lighter" or normally); 2) running PC Pitstop Optimize; 3) running the Windows "Check Disk For Errors" program; and 4) using Macecraft's jv16 PowerTools 2009 program just to check the "health" of my registry -- all without any luck.

Thank you very much for any suggestions or help that you could offer.

Rich Solon

Download free utility from Frameworkx.com that will easily let you remove or place shortcut arrows without having to do any registry patches.

Download

Have you recently installed any legacy package in your system ? Because many times, after installing a legacy package, a few shortcuts under the "All Users" desktop wont show the icon properly. The product might work fine, but the shortcut will be missing .

If you wanted to restore back your systems missing or incorrect icon you may use the Regedits: You need to Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by right clicking on the file and selecting Edit. You may check for “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop” folder. If an administrative user logged into the same machine, the icons appeared as expected.

Thank you very much for your suggestions:

ThoMas321 -- I did download the free utility from Frameworkx.com, but before installing it, I noticed that it says it is for Vista. Would you suggest that it is OK to install this on my system using Win XP SP3?

Macarenas -- I did reinstall Microsoft Office 2003 recently, but hadn't noticed any issues due to that. The shortcuts do show up, but not as shortcuts (they look like regular folders or files with extensions). That is why I'm having trouble keeping straight what is a shortcut and what isn't (without the extra steps of checking folder or file properties all the time).

Pugsly -- I am not a very advanced user, so I am leery of editing my registry unless I have very clear instructions. I understand your instructions to be able to edit the registry, but I don't believe the specific steps I need to take to correct the shortcut problem were included in your kind reply. If so, please let me know, as I've not understood that properly.

Thank you all for taking the time to help me with this problem.

Kind regards,

Rich Solon

try tweakui pro software...it has various options to reset windows settings...i once had the same problem , tweakui had that option of making shortcut appear/disappear..

Ganesh.cs -- Thank you for your suggestion. The MS PowerToys version of tweakui contains some options to implement shortcuts (light or normal) or remove them. I tried that, but to no avail. I did a search for the tweakui pro software you suggested and found "MagicTweak 4.10" for $40.00 US. Is that the software you are suggesting? Thank you again. ~ Rich