Why Do All My Desktop Icons Have Blue Arrows? | Fast Blue Fix

Those twin blue arrows mark NTFS compression; turn it off for a file, folder, or drive in Properties to remove the overlay, or keep it to save space.

Your desktop icons didn’t change color for fun. Those tiny twin arrows mean Windows marked items as compressed. It’s a space saver, not a virus, and your files still open like normal. If you want the arrows gone, you’ve got options. This guide shows what the overlay means, why you’re seeing it on everything, and ways to toggle it off without risking data or speed.

Blue Arrows On Desktop Icons: What They Mean

Windows can shrink files on NTFS drives with a built-in feature called compression. When that flag is set on a file, folder, or an entire drive, Windows adds a small overlay of two blue arrows in the top-r