Remove Arrow Links in iTunes 9 & 10 for Windows

Back in iTunes 8, Apple removed the preferences option to disable the arrow links to the iTunes music store next to the name and artist of a highlighted song. I find these highly annoying, since I never intend to use them. For the Windows version of iTunes, I found two different ways to get rid of these arrow icons:

Method 1
Go to Edit > Preferences > Parental Control, and check “Disable: iTunes Store”

While this is the simplest way of getting rid of the arrows, in the latest versions of iTunes, disabling the iTunes Store also disables Genius and automatic album art downloading. If you use these features, like I do, disabling the iTunes Store altogether is not an option. In this case, there is another way:

Method 2
Follow the instructions found here. Basically, you first close iTunes, then with a text editor open C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunesPrefs.xml on Windows XP, or C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunesPrefs.xml on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Make sure to replace UserName with your own Windows user name. After the following lines:


User Preferences

add the code:


show-store-arrow-links

AA==

When iTunes is reopened, the arrow icon links will be gone! Since I use Genius and downloading album art, I used the second method and it works great in both iTunes 9 and iTunes 10!

Update: I have also posted how to remove the Ping dropdown menu in iTunes 10 for Windows as well.