Strange Shortcut/Icon problem

[WillBurt]

Today, a fellow employee, flagged me down and showed me the problem he's having. And to be honest, I have no clue how to fix this or where to start. I am now going to try and explain his problem. Right now, any shortcut placed on the desktop or start menu, does two things. A) It does not give it the appropriate icon. B) When double clicked it launches the last used program (for example if he launched Word last and he wanted to launch PC Anywhere and he double clicked on the icon it would still launch Word.)
Thanks!

 

[wpshooter]

Have they restared computer since this started happening ?

 

[WillBurt]

yea, quite a few time actually. We've ran almost every utility known to man also.

 

[wpshooter]

If it is not some type of virus, spyware, etc., etc. or if there is not some type of hardware problem, it sounds like to me it may be time to reinstall the O/S. How long has it been since that was done ?

Also, you may want to get hard drive diagnostics software from manufacturer and test drive for integrity.

Also, might not be a bad idea to run memtest86.

Good luck.

 

[WillBurt]

It's definetly not some type of strange virus/spyware. Win2k has been on there since prolly 2003. And reinsstalling in not an option at the moment.

 

[jfunk]

Originally posted by: WillBurt
It's definetly not some type of strange virus/spyware. Win2k has been on there since prolly 2003. And reinsstalling in not an option at the moment.

I'm not sure why this means it does not have spyware or a virus. Win2K gets these things just like every other version.

Can you possibly post a screenshot of the properties of some of your shortcuts?

 

[Rapidskies]

Try loggin on as a different user to see if it is OS related or tied to that user's profile.

 

[WillBurt]

I know it does not have a virus or spyware. Trust me. I've ran HJT and everything is normal.

Rapidskies - It's definetly the computer. I just logged in his computer and every shortcut (.ink) was a unrecognizable file according windows and it wanted you to select the program from the list.

 

[WillBurt]

Pic

 

[jfunk]

Your .lnk association is broken.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q172053/