You will notice in Vista (also in XP) that whenever you make a shortcut the word ‘shortcut’ appears in the icon, like this;

Shortcut Text

There is an easy registry hack you can perform that will take off the word ‘shortcut’ on all new shortcuts you make, just do this;

  • Navigate to this location
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  • Find the key called link
  • Change the value from 1e 00 00 00 to 00 00 00 00
  • Reboot your PC
  • Done