This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but they can be bothersome.
How much reminding do we really need that they are, in fact, shortcuts?
When you’ve found—or created—the linkvalue, double-click it to open its properties window.
In the “Value data” box, replace the current value with “00 00 00 00.”
Note that the current value you see will depend on what version and edition of Windows you’re running.
It doesn’t matter what’s there already.
Just replace it with all zeroes.
You’ll need to start your box (or sign out and back in) to complete the change.
Test it out by creating a new shortcut.
Windows should no longer add the “- Shortcut” text.
If you want to reverse the changes, just head back into the Registry and delete the linkvalue.
This will work whether the value was already there or you created it yourself.
Windows will recreate the value with the default setting when it needs to.
The “Remove Shortcut Text” hack sets thelinkvalue to 0, creating the value if it needs to.
Both hacks are included in the following ZIP file.
Double-hit the one you want to use and click through the prompts.
