Desktop Shortcuts become lnk files?

[pipercub]

Hi All

My Son has struck a very weird problem. With one or two exceptions all the shortcuts on the desktop now display a suffix .lnk and, when clicked, bring up a message:

`Windows cannot open this file`
File :`abcdef`.lnk
To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select it from a list of programs on your computer.

What do you want to do?

Use the Web service to find the appropriate program
Select the program from a list.

Going to Start / programs and clicking on a program gets the same message.
Getting into a programs directory and clicking on an exe file also brings up the same message.
He managed to get online ( Internet Explorer still worked) and ran an online scan at McAfee which shoed up nothing.
Any ideas anyone?

Cheers: Pipercub

[godfather]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q172053

[pipercub]

Ta godfather. I should have mentioned that he`s running XP Pro but I`ll get him ( or some-one who knows what they`re doing ) to try it.

Pipercub

[Jen]

Hi pipercub

Go to this page (http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm) and look for the line with "LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix - (Restores Default Shortcut Behavior)". If you click on that link a zip file will download. Save this to your desktop. Double click on it to extract the REG file inside. Then double click on the REG file and answer "yes" to the import question. This REG file will put back the default file associations for .lnk files in WinXP and should restore your desktop icons. :)