Windows not recognizing shortcuts

[realprostunna]

This is on my parents' computer, so I'm not exactly sure what they did.

But Windows doesn't recognize its own shortcuts (.lnk files). All the shortcuts on the desktop and the Start Menu won't open. When I click on them, a box appears that reads something like Windows doesn't know what to open this program with along with being able to select what program to open with or search the Internet. I do the Internet thing, but it doesn't find anything.

I ran both a Norton Anti-Virus scan and an Ad-Aware spyware check this afternoon, and both came up empty. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[thegorx]

what version of windows ?

it sounds like a registry problem
if you knew when this started you could restore a registry with system restore in XP
or scanreg in windows 98 or ME

or you could just import the registry keys

like
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk

and
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile

from a working version

 

[realprostunna]

It's XP Home, and I'm not really sure when it happened, so I don't think I can do a system restore. But thanks, I'll try and import those reg. keys.

 

[tk11]

Right click>save target here to download a reg file that may fix your problem. Just double click it on the computer with the problem and hit yes when prompted.