Turning off the shortcut arrow

The required reg files and instructions can be found at:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-shortcut-icon-arrow-overlay-in-windows-vista/

You will also want the updated blank.ico from:

http://www.subvsys.co.uk/downloads/vista/blank_ico.zip

In XP, when you deleted a shortcut from the desktop you got the reassuring note that this would not delete the actual file. That is no longer there in Vista. I wish it were.
Apparently I once deleted a program (google desktop search) when I thought I was just deleting a shortcut. The icon had the shortcut arrow on it, but when I tried to start it up, the exe file was gone.