Shortcut arrow icons gone after Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2014-04-26T20:52:31+00:00

Hey all,

I know it's something minor but ever since I have upgraded to Windows 8.1 I noticed that the little shortcut arrow icons that appear on shortcuts are gone. They appear again only if I hover my mouse over the shortcuts or if I refresh the desktop or folder where the shortcuts are in. However, after a reboot the issue comes up again and I have to redo the mentioned actions.

Things I have tried:

  1. I did a SFC/ scannow and it didn't find any integrity violations.
  2. I have tried 3 different nvidia WHQL drivers without any result.
  3. A reformat also didn't fix the issue.

My specs:

Windows 8.1 Pro 64x with Media Centre (Update 1 installed along with all latest updates)

i5 3570K CPU

nVidia GTX 660Ti with 335.23 WHQL driver (not OC'ed)

8 GB RAM and 1 TB HDD

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

48 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-04-28T10:54:01+00:00

    Hi Johnny,

    Thank you for the update.

    In order to make sure if the issue is not with the corrupt user profile, please login to the different user account and check if the issue persists there. If you don't have different user account, let's create a new user account.

    Refer to the suggestions from this link:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/create-user-account#create-user-account=windows-8

    Please reply and update us the status.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-27T18:33:31+00:00

    Hi Johnny,

    Does this issue occur after updating from Win 8 to Win 8.1?

    Let's create a new shortcut and check if it shows the arrow. If the new shortcut displays fine, probably the old shortcuts are corrupt. You may delete them and create new shortcuts.

    Please keep us posted on the status of the issue.

    Yes, this bug occurred after updating to Win 8.1

    I just created a new shortcut and realised that the arrow icons disappearing is completely random at reboots. Sometimes they appear on some shortcuts and sometimes they're not there (even on the newly created shortcuts). There doesn't seem to be a preference for specific shortcuts.

    I also noticed that the arrow icons tend to be missing more often when you immediately go to the Desktop as soon as the Start Menu appears after a reboot. Opening a folder on the Desktop that contains shortcuts also doesn't show any arrows until I hover my mouse over them or refresh.

    There are several threads I found with the same problem:

    http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/41987-shortcut-arrows-randomly-disappear.html

    http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/39237-does-anyone-else-s-8-1-enterprise-not-show-shortcut-icons.html

    http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/43335-shortcut-overlay-not-loading-automatically.html

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-27T16:53:45+00:00

    Hi Johnny,

    Does this issue occur after updating from Win 8 to Win 8.1?

    Let's create a new shortcut and check if it shows the arrow. If the new shortcut displays fine, probably the old shortcuts are corrupt. You may delete them and create new shortcuts.

    Please keep us posted on the status of the issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments