Thank you, both, for the information and instructions.
I tried editing the Registry (regedit.exe) and found no such file as identified by you both. Here is a screenshot of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/lnk folder and its contents:
reglnk.jpg
I then found, downloaded installed and ran Ultimate Windows Tweaker. When I looked at each of the menu choices I finally found the option you described, Rudi; but the option is grayed out and the box is blank.
I have no clue why the lnkfile is missing.
What should I look at next? Should I try to recover or add the lnkfile to the registry? If so, how does one do that?
I'm off to search for answers.
UPDATE:
In searching, I found that there are a number of different problems around options in the Registry lnk and lnkfile files; however, none of those described are relevant to my situation. Most of them have to do with shortcut links being hijacked or changed from their intended purpose.
I went back to my desktop and discovered that SOME of my shortcuts have the arrow and others do not. Apparently, I changed something at some point in time and some of the program shortcuts retain their arrows while more recent ones (I think) do not have an arrow. All of the shortcuts seem to be pointing to their intended functions for either programs or files. I have not experienced clicking one that didn't produce the expected result (or at least I don't recall this ever having happened). In other words I don't really have a functional problem but only one of display anomalies for the shortcut icons.
I reopened Ultimate Windows Tweaker and looked again at the various options for changing the registry. Mind you, I have not changed anything in UWT or using Regedit . . . only looked at the options. The strange thing is that now I can see the "Remove Arrows from Shortcut Icons" without it being grayed out, but it remains unchecked (meaning, I inferred, that the arrows should be displayed. Here's a screenshot:
uwt.jpg
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