Blue Double Arrows

Anonymous
2010-03-10T14:16:08+00:00

What are the blue double arrows that sometimes appear on my desktop icons and pictures and how can I get rid of them?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-03-10T15:05:51+00:00

Do you have Norton 360 or some other Norton security suite?   If so, that's why.  The double blue icons means there are files that haven't been backed up. It can be turned off.  Go to Norton 360 http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/dtree.jsp?pvid= and learn how to turn it off, reboot and they will be gone.  For anyone that does have Norton 360, if you kept it turned on, when you backed up the files, the icon would turn a solid green arrow instead of the 2 blue arrows.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-19T07:44:43+00:00

    Looks like it's a new way for showing what's compressed (old way is to make files and folders names blue)

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-29T16:59:41+00:00

    I know this is an old topic, but i am suddenly seeing these blue arrows on my icons in windows 10 and i do not nor have i ever had any Norton products on this PC, so what do i do to rid myself of them?

    So I just transferred pictures from a USB to my PC and noticed all the pictures had the Double Blue arrow in the bottom. I clicked the original pic it was 64KB and the pic with the Blue Arrows was 60KB. But then as I was looking into the folder, each Blue Double Arrow was being replaced by a Green Check, after a few minutes all Blue Arrows were replaced with Green Checks.

    I am going to guess this allowed for a faster transfer to the computer then they recovered to full size somehow. I am running Windows 10 Build 10565.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-19T18:32:50+00:00

    Simple and fast way to remove double arrows. The double blue arrows indicate that the files were automatically compressed.

    1. Open File Explorer and navigate to your top level directory (i.e. Documents)
    2. Right click on that directory name and select "Properties" from the bottom (at the bottom of the list)
    3. Under the General tab, select Advanced in the bottom right corner.
    4. Deselect "Compress contents to save disk space"
    5. Click "OK"
    6. Select "Apply" in the bottom left corner
    7. You will get a pop-up > Select option two - Apply changes to all folders and sub-folders
    8. Dialog screen will appear that files are being changed. Blue arrows will be gone.
    9. Repeat for other top level directories (i.e. Pictures)

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-01T22:24:47+00:00

    Any way to remove these without unchecking the compression option? A registry hack perhaps? These are SUPER annoying!!!

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