Hack your shortcuts to get rid of the Yellow and Blue shield icon on your desktop shortcuts.
What is it?
This is a hack for Windows 7 desktops (for Vista and Windows 8 as well, though the shield icon is red, green, blue and yellow under Vista) which allows you to setup a shortcut which will run a program with elevated privileges, such that it will not prompt you to enter a Username/Password or dim the screen and ask for permission to continue…but most importantly of all: Your program shortcut Yellow/Blue shield will go away!
Yes, this is important if, like me, you prefer your icons be normal looking.
Full Disclosure:
I didn’t discover this hack, I’m merely re-writing it in simpler form for my audience.  If you’re interested in seeing my source (with fancy screenshots!), the link is here.
Make the Yellow and Blue Shield Go Away
First off, you need Administrator-level access to the computer. If all you have is a standard user account then print these instructions and take them to your Admin. Bring a bag of cookies and a small carton of milk. You will have your icons fixed up by lunchtime.
Steps
- Create a TASK for the system to run when the shortcut is run
- Open Task Scheduler (press Windows key + R, in the dialog box type “taskschd.msc” and press Enter.)
- Click Task Scheduler Library in the left-hand window. Under Actions on the right, click on Create Task
- Give the task a name, such as “Old_Program” and make a note of the name for later use.
- Check the box marked “Run with highest privileges“
- Click the dropdown Configure for: and select your operating system (or select a different one to have the program run in Compatibility Mode if the program requires it)
- Click the Actions tab at the top. Click New… button. In the Program/script: box, type:
%windir%\System32\cmd.exe - In the Add arguments(optional): box, type:
/c start “Old_Program” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Old_Program\Old_Program.exe” with the quotes and substitute your program name and the full path to your program where appropriate. - Click OK to save/close the Action.
- Are you using a laptop? If so then you want to click on Conditions tab and uncheck “Stop if the computer switches to battery power” and then uncheck “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power”.
- Click OK to save/close your Task.
- Create a new Shortcut on your desktop
- Right-click on the desktop and click New and then Shortcut
- Where it asks for the location of the item, you will type:
schtasks /run /tn “Old_Program”  substituting your program name of course - Click Next, then give your Shortcut a name, any name, and click Finish.
- Change the Shortcut’s icon
- Right-click the Shortcut, goto Properties.
- Click the Shortcut tab and then click on the Change Icon button.
- Browse for a new icon (usually you just goto the full path for your program and you can use the executable)
- Select the icon you want and tap OK button a couple times to save and close the Shortcut.
That’s it, you’re done. This hack creates shortcuts that not only do not have the shield overlay on their icon, but also do not prompt you to run as administrator.
If you want to you can now use this elevated Shortcut to run at startup in your “Startup” folder, run at startup as a task, Pin to Startup Menu, Pin to Taskbar, assign a keyboard shortcut, or simply keep on the desktop.
