Desktop and Start Menu Shortcuts not "working"

[theknight571]

Recently (couple days ago) the shortcuts on my desktop and my Start Menu stopped "working".

For example: When I select Internet Explorer from the Start Menu, IE will launch, open briefly, then close.

Other programs do not launch at all.

However, if I browse to the .exe file (iexplore.exe, winword.exe, etc) then the application will run.

I've run an AV program (MS Security Essentials, then Symantec), MalwareBytes, Spybot and rKill. Spybot and MalwareBytes both found some registry and cookies that it flagged and removed, but it didn't fix the problem.

I've also noticed that the machine will not allow an install program to add shortcuts to the desktop or Start Menu. (It gives an error...I tried to install the latest Chrome and also got similar errors when upgrading MalwareBytes and Spybot).

Any ideas what is going on?

Edit... Forgot to mention: Windows XP, with all up to date patches from MS.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Go to Doug Knox's Windows® XP File Association Fixes page and download "LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix" (about halfway down the page). It will restore XP's default shortcut behavior.

 

[theknight571]

Go to Doug Knox's Windows® XP File Association Fixes page and download "LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix" (about halfway down the page). It will restore XP's default shortcut behavior.

Thanks... That fixed almost everything.

IE and some system windows still aren't acting properly though. (His IE Icon fix file didn't help) I found my XP Disk... I'm going to try to repair the installation.

 

[Dude111]

I do believe doing a system restore would also have worked...

Im glad ya got things corrected