Disable blue arrows icon on folders and files in Windows 10

In Windows 10, you might notice a blue arrows overlay icon for some folders and files. It looks like a pair of blue arrows pointing at each other. You might be curious what this overlay icon indicates and how to disable it. You will find the answer in this article.

If you are a regular Winaero reader, you might be already knowing about CompactOS, the new compression mechanism introduced in Windows 10. It is intended to save some notable amount of disk space for SSD owners and mobile device users.

The blue arrows overlay icon on a folder or a file indicates that it is compressed using NTFS file system compression to save disk space. The addition of the overlay icon itself is new to Windows 10 File Explorer.

If you are not happy to see this blue overlay icon, here is how you can disable it.

  1. Download the ZIP archive which contains the empty icon. It will be used instead of the blue arrows icon.

    Download empty icon

    In the archive, you also will find the ready-to-use Registry files to avoid the manual Registry editing and save your time.

  2. Extract and put the blank.ico file to any folder you want. For example, let's use the following path:
    C:\Windows\blank.ico
  3. Open Registry Editor.
  4. Go to the following path:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

    Tip: See how to jump to the desired Registry key with one click.

  5. Create a new subkey named Shell Icons.
  6. Under the Shell Icons subkeym, create a new string value and name it 179. Set its value to the full path the "blank.ico" file. In my case I have to set it to
    C:\Windows\blank.ico

  7. Sign out from your Windows session or restart the Explorer shell.

You are done. Before:
After:

To undo this change, you need to delete the mentioned "179" value.

The same can be done with Winaero Tweaker:

Get the app here: Download Winaero Tweaker.

That's it.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:

If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!

Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

8 thoughts on “Disable blue arrows icon on folders and files in Windows 10”

  1. nice thing but according to others this doesnt work anymore, also is there a way to get the blue text color for NTFS compression back?

      1. To stop the blue text for compressed file names in Windows 10, follow these steps.

        Cortana search: File Explorer Options [or Folder Options] > View > uncheck “Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color” > Apply > Okay (file names on compressed files will now be black).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Exit mobile version
Using Telegram? Subscribe to the blog channel!
Hello. Add your message here.