Stop new shortcuts being named "… - Shortcut" — via Winaero

Registry change

Double-click a .reg file and confirm to merge it. Right-click → Edit first if you want to read it, which is always a good idea with any .reg file from the internet.

Apply

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: Stop new shortcuts being named "… - Shortcut"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates]
"ShortcutNameTemplate"="\"%s.lnk\""

Undo

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: undo Stop new shortcuts being named "… - Shortcut"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates]
"ShortcutNameTemplate"=-

Same thing from a command prompt

Run in a normal (non-admin) Command Prompt or Terminal.

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates" /v "ShortcutNameTemplate" /t REG_SZ /d ""%s.lnk"" /f

Undo:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NamingTemplates" /v "ShortcutNameTemplate" /f

The quotes are part of the value data. Reader reports are mixed: some say it stopped working on certain Windows 11 builds, so test it by creating a shortcut. Winaero says the change applies immediately; restarting Explorer does no harm.