How to Prevent “Shortcut” Suffix Added for New Shortcuts in Windows 7 and Above

Few days back we covered how to change the new folder naming template in Windows 10. Likewise you can change the naming template for shortcuts as well. We’ve written how to do prevent "shortcut" suffix from being added for new shortcuts in Windows Vista few years back. That registry edit for Windows Vista does not work in Windows 7 and higher. Here is a tip that comes courtesy of a poster at SuperUser, to remove the annoying "- Shortcut" suffix for newly created shortcuts in Windows 7/8/10 systems.

To prevent Windows adding that "- Shortcut" suffix for newly created shortcuts, click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}. Navigate to the following registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Create a subkey named NamingTemplates

Select NamingTemplates, and in the right-pane create a new String value named ShortcutNameTemplate. Double-click ShortcutNameTemplate and set its value data as "%s.lnk" (with quotes)



Exit the Registry Editor.

(If you’re using Windows Vista, visit our earlier article How to Prevent "Shortcut" Suffix from Being Added to New Shortcuts in Windows Vista.)


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

2 thoughts on “How to Prevent “Shortcut” Suffix Added for New Shortcuts in Windows 7 and Above”

    • @Nick: This happens if one inputs the value wrongly as .INK (or .ink), instead of .lnk. Changing the registry value to .lnk (.LNK) should help.

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