Preventing the “Shortcut to” prefix that is added to new shortcuts.

By default, the “shortcut to” prefix is added to all new shortcuts.

To disable this feature, use any one of the following:

Rename a Shortcut Five Times:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon, and then click Create Shortcut. This places a shortcut named “Shortcut to My Computer” on the desktop.

2. Right-click the shortcut, and then click Rename.

3. Rename the “Shortcut to My Computer” file to “My Computer.”

4. Delete the “My Computer” shortcut.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 four times. The sixth time you create the shortcut, the “Shortcut to” prefix is not added.

NOTE: You do not have to use My Computer to create the shortcut. You can use any file, folder, drive, computer, or printer. To restore the “Shortcut to” prefix, delete the registry key listed in method 3 and then restart the computer.

Use Tweak UI:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the Tweak UI icon.

2. On the Explorer tab, click to clear the “Prefix shortcut to’ on new shortcuts” check box, and then click OK.

3. Restart the computer.

For Windows 95: Tweak UI is available as a component of the Windows 95 PowerToys available at the following Microsoft Web site: Windows 95 Downloads Or Download from our Server: Download Tweak UI Windows 95

For Windows 98: See the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for information about obtaining Tweak UI:

Q190643: How to Install and Uninstall the Tweak UI Tool in Windows 98

NOTE: Windows 98 Second Edition does not include TweakUI. For additional information about this issue, refer to the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q237920: Tweak UI Not on Windows 98 Second Edition CD-ROM

Download: Tweak UI for Windows 98 Only!

Download: Tweak UI 2000 – Version 1.33 (Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000)

Edit the Registry:

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Start Registry Editor.

2. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

3. Modify the data value of the Link value to be 00 00 00 00.

NOTE: For Windows 95, the Link value does not exist by default. Create the Link value as a Binary value, with a data value of 00 00 00 00.

4. Restart the computer.

Note: To implement this change for all users on a computer with user profiles enabled, modify the Link value in the following registry keys:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

HKEY_USERS\\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

If you need to restore the “Shortcut to” prefix, delete the Link value.