Vista - Disable Context Menu Icons

Vista Home Premium
I have third party software like ESET NOD 32 and some freeware that installs shortcuts into my context menu which is good. They also store icons to the right of the shortcut which is bad. The various softwares don't have options to disable icons or even context menu options at all. How do I get rid of those ugly icons and keep the shortcut items?

Usually if the program offers no option for the context menu then it's all or nothing. You may be able to disable it either by using one of those Context Menu control utilities, or if the program has .dll files in its install folder and you have admin privileges then you may be able to do it by hand. Esp. if the names of the .dll files have "shell" in them it's a clue they are for the shell extension. As example if the .dll is named myshellext.dll you would open a command prompt with admin privilege and type:
regsvr32 /u myshellext.dll and hit Enter.

You should see a message like "unregister of myshellext.dll succeeded".

See tutuorials for how to open a command prompt with admin privilege. Or get one of the Shell Extension Control gizmos that work in Vista(if there are any.. you'd have to search the freeware sites and Vista compatibility lists etc.)