Why do I see black boxes in place of the arrows in my shortcut icons?

[Windows Central Question]

I recently followed the registry tweak described on this website to remove the arrows from my shortcut icons. After I followed the steps the arrows were removed from the shortcut icons. The problem now is that even though the arrows are gone there are even worse looking black squares left in their place. How can I get the original arrow overlays back or possibly the the shortcuts image onlyback. which is what I was shooting for from the start? Thanks

 

[TechFreak1]

If after signing out, restarting you still see black squares.

1) If you haven't backed up the registry keys prior to modifying them
2) If you haven't go a system restore point or created a system restore point then you will have to manually revert everything you did.

[NOTE]However the instructions are not exhaustive and without knowing exactly what you did I cannot give you step by step instructions. The instructions below are only indicative of where the shortcut overlay is found.[/NOTE]

To revert:

1) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons
2) double click on "29" in the right hand pane to change
3) and type in or copy %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-16769
4) Press enter, close the registry editor and restart / sign out

If you're using windows 10.
1) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.Ink\ShellNew\
2) Double click IconPath
3) Type in / paste %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-16769
4) %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-16769

It goes to show why people who don't know what they are doing shouldn't be messing with the registry in the first place :winktongue:.

Also can you link the tutorial here, in this thread after joining as I'm rather curious to see what may have gone wrong for you and plus I don't recall seeing any such tutorial however I may have missed it.