So if you’re of the belief that the curving arrow symbol on a shortcut icon is more than sufficient, and that the word “Shortcut” in its name is overkill, here’s how to stop Windows from doing that.
How to Tweak the Windows Registry to Get Rid of the Shortcut Suffix
Usually, when you create a shortcut (such as using the Send to > Desktop (create shortcut) context menu option), Windows will append “Shortcut” to the end of it. To stop this behavior, we’re doing to tweak the Windows registry.
A word of caution: incorrectly editing the registry can leave your system unstable, so be careful when tweaking values within the Windows registry editor. If you’re new to this sort of thing, we’ve got a guide where you can learn more about the Windows registry and how to edit it. Before proceeding, it is a good idea to back up the registry just in case something does go wrong.
How to Turn Off the Shortcut Name Extension Using the Windows Registry
If you’re all set, follow these steps to remove the “Shortcut” suffix from the filenames of new shortcuts you create.
Click on the Start menu and type “run. ” Open the Run app. Alternatively, press Win + R to open the Run app. Type “regedit” and click OK. A dialog box may pop up asking for permission to edit the registry; click OK. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates If you do not have a folder NamingTemplates, right-click on the folder Explorer and go to New > Key. Name the key NamingTemplates and hit Enter. In the NamingTemplates key, open the string ShortcutNameTemplate. This string may not exist and you might need to create it. To do so, right-click the empty space in the key NamingTemplates and go to New > String Value; name it ShortcutNameTemplate and press Enter. Set the value data of the string ShortcutNameTemplate to “%s. lnk”, keeping the quotation marks, to remove the “- Shortcut” name extension for all newly created shortcuts. You may need to restart your computer or Windows Explorer for the changes to take effect.
Note that this method will only affect the shortcuts you create subsequently. Any shortcuts created previously will not be renamed automatically.
An Alternative Method to Drop the Shortcut Name Extension
If you don’t want to go through the process of creating new keys and strings in your Registry editor, you can use this slightly simpler method.
Open the Registry editor. Navigate to the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer Look for the binary value named link. If the link binary value isn’t present, create it by right-clicking in the empty space and selecting New > Binary Value. Rename the new binary value link. Double click it to open it and change its value data to “00 00 00 00. ” You don’t need the quotation marks. Select OK and close out of the registry editor. You may need to restart your computer or Windows Explorer for this to take effect.
The value you might see in the link binary value on your computer might be different. It depends on the Windows version and edition you are running. It doesn’t really matter what the value is; replacing it with all zeros will stop Windows adding the “Shortcut” name extension to newly created shortcuts.
Revert to the Windows Default Shortcut Naming System
If you’ve used the first method to remove the “Shortcut” name extension for new shortcuts, simply delete the ShortcutNameTemplate string value in the NamingTemplates key.
To revert to the Windows default shortcut naming scheme if you’ve used the alternative method, delete the link binary value. This will work in both cases, whether the link value existed before you made the change to its value or if you created the link value yourself. Windows will recreate the value if and when it needs to and should work properly with or without the binary value.
Tweak the Look and Feel of Windows
Making Windows look and feel how you like isn’t difficult, and there are several esthetic customizations you can make to give it the touch you are comfortable with. Some of them–such as changing how Windows names newly created shortcuts–serve a dual purpose of looking tidy and saving you time.
