Shortcuts are now .lnk and will not open

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

I have a customer which had this happen to him. This was also in
combination with not being able to open most .exe files like cmd.exe or
regedit.exe. I was able to fix the .exe issue by renaming regedit.exe to
regedit.com in order to access the registry. But I still cannot fix the
..lnk issue. No shortcuts work nor do newly created ones. I have tried all
of the regitry edits coming from multiple sites as well as Microsoft's and
JSI's. I've tried restarting after each change as well as completely
shutting down. I've also researched newsgroups and google pretty
extensively and everything that comes up is the usual fixing of the .lnk
and lnkfile registry entries. I've also exported such entries from a known
working Windows 2000 workstation but yet...Nothing...

I'm afraid I will be reloading his workstation this weekend because of
this. I was putting it off because there is usually a fix for any issue but
this one is starting to take too long to find the resolution.

Can anyone else help with this?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

SWalters wrote:
> I have a customer which had this happen to him. This was also in
> combination with not being able to open most .exe files like cmd.exe or
> regedit.exe. I was able to fix the .exe issue by renaming regedit.exe to
> regedit.com in order to access the registry. But I still cannot fix the
> .lnk issue. No shortcuts work nor do newly created ones. I have tried all
> of the regitry edits coming from multiple sites as well as Microsoft's and
> JSI's. I've tried restarting after each change as well as completely
> shutting down. I've also researched newsgroups and google pretty
> extensively and everything that comes up is the usual fixing of the .lnk
> and lnkfile registry entries. I've also exported such entries from a known
> working Windows 2000 workstation but yet...Nothing...
>
> I'm afraid I will be reloading his workstation this weekend because of
> this. I was putting it off because there is usually a fix for any issue but
> this one is starting to take too long to find the resolution.
>
> Can anyone else help with this?
>

A few years ago I slipped somehow and made Notepad be the application to
handle .lnk files. Of course, none of my desktop shortcuts would
work after that. It sounds like you mangled the association for .exe.
It took me several days to fix my problem and I had to learn a lot
about how the registry works in the process.

I suggest you look at another machine side by side to yours. Use
regedit to look at the registry type "exefile" and make sure everything
agrees with the known good machine.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

"William W. Plummer" <William.Plummer@alum.mit.edu> wrote in
news:lOGdnUvYMf_8ixPfRVn-pA@comcast.com:

> A few years ago I slipped somehow and made Notepad be the application to
> handle .lnk files. Of course, none of my desktop shortcuts would
> work after that. It sounds like you mangled the association for .exe.
> It took me several days to fix my problem and I had to learn a lot
> about how the registry works in the process.
>
> I suggest you look at another machine side by side to yours. Use
> regedit to look at the registry type "exefile" and make sure everything
> agrees with the known good machine.

As I stated I do not have any problems with .exe files now. Just .lnk
files. I work with the registry quit a bit and this is actually on one of
my customer's workstations so I cannot trace the reason this happened to
begin with. I cannot find any reference to it being infected with a virus
either.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

From a command prompt;
assoc .lnk
should return with
..lnk=lnkfile
If not
assoc .lnk=lnkfile

Failing that;

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q292/1/75.ASP

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306952

Be sure to apply these to your repair install before connecting to any
network.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx
--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"SWalters" wrote:
|I have a customer which had this happen to him. This was also in
| combination with not being able to open most .exe files like cmd.exe or
| regedit.exe. I was able to fix the .exe issue by renaming regedit.exe to
| regedit.com in order to access the registry. But I still cannot fix the
| .lnk issue. No shortcuts work nor do newly created ones. I have tried all
| of the regitry edits coming from multiple sites as well as Microsoft's and
| JSI's. I've tried restarting after each change as well as completely
| shutting down. I've also researched newsgroups and google pretty
| extensively and everything that comes up is the usual fixing of the .lnk
| and lnkfile registry entries. I've also exported such entries from a known
| working Windows 2000 workstation but yet...Nothing...
|
| I'm afraid I will be reloading his workstation this weekend because of
| this. I was putting it off because there is usually a fix for any issue
but
| this one is starting to take too long to find the resolution.
|
| Can anyone else help with this?
|
| Thanks

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

"SWalters" <swalters_1NOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965C6FA3DAE3DnoIDtoken@207.46.248.16...
> I have a customer which had this happen to him. This was also in
> combination with not being able to open most .exe files like cmd.exe or
> regedit.exe. I was able to fix the .exe issue by renaming regedit.exe to
> regedit.com in order to access the registry. But I still cannot fix the
> .lnk issue. No shortcuts work nor do newly created ones. I have tried all
> of the regitry edits coming from multiple sites as well as Microsoft's and
> JSI's. I've tried restarting after each change as well as completely
> shutting down. I've also researched newsgroups and google pretty
> extensively and everything that comes up is the usual fixing of the .lnk
> and lnkfile registry entries. I've also exported such entries from a known
> working Windows 2000 workstation but yet...Nothing...
>
> I'm afraid I will be reloading his workstation this weekend because of
> this. I was putting it off because there is usually a fix for any issue
but
> this one is starting to take too long to find the resolution.
>
> Can anyone else help with this?
>
> Thanks

I can smell a virus.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in news:#6d4l3UXFHA.1384
@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl:

> I can smell a virus.

Couldn't find a virus anywhere. Nothing out of the usual in the "run"
registry. He had Symantec running with the latest definitions. He also
scanned for spyware often using Adaware. I thought I read somewhere that
Adaware was thought to have caused this in one other person's post but it
is even uninstalled.

Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

"SWalters" <swalters_1NOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965C7305F92BBnoIDtoken@207.46.248.16...
> "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in news:#6d4l3UXFHA.1384
> @TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl:
>
> > I can smell a virus.
>
> Couldn't find a virus anywhere. Nothing out of the usual in the "run"
> registry. He had Symantec running with the latest definitions. He also
> scanned for spyware often using Adaware. I thought I read somewhere that
> Adaware was thought to have caused this in one other person's post but it
> is even uninstalled.
>
> Do you have any suggestions?

I still smell a virus, because of your report of running regedit.exe
as regedit.com. I googled for "regedit.com" "virus" and found
this link (among others):
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=98881
It says there: " As these registry values use the incorrect file extension,
an
error message is displayed when attempting to launch any .EXE file. "

I suggest you get a second opinion on your PC's virus status and
scan it with an external virus scanner, e.g. on www.antivirus.com
("free online scan").

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in
news:uofLgFVXFHA.3044@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl:

> I still smell a virus, because of your report of running regedit.exe
> as regedit.com. I googled for "regedit.com" "virus" and found
> this link (among others):
> http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=98881
> It says there: " As these registry values use the incorrect file
> extension, an
> error message is displayed when attempting to launch any .EXE file. "
>
> I suggest you get a second opinion on your PC's virus status and
> scan it with an external virus scanner, e.g. on www.antivirus.com
> ("free online scan").

I appreciate your replies but I have scanned everything multiple times and
we all know that almost all viruses, including the one you provided a link
for above, establishes itself in the "run" section of the registry. I do
this stuff for a living and have never had to post anything like this
before.

I asure you there are no viruses on this PC. Something is jsut corrupt in
the registry and I can't find out what key is actually causing the issue.
The .lnk files are try to open in Microsoft Paint, however, any reference I
can find in the registry to .lnk files or the lnkfile section looks
completely fine.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.general (More info?)

SWalters wrote:

> I have a customer which had this happen to him. This was also in
> combination with not being able to open most .exe files like cmd.exe or
> regedit.exe. I was able to fix the .exe issue by renaming regedit.exe to
> regedit.com in order to access the registry. But I still cannot fix the
> .lnk issue. No shortcuts work nor do newly created ones. I have tried
all
> of the regitry edits coming from multiple sites as well as Microsoft's
and
> JSI's. I've tried restarting after each change as well as completely
> shutting down. I've also researched newsgroups and google pretty
> extensively and everything that comes up is the usual fixing of the .lnk
> and lnkfile registry entries. I've also exported such entries from a
known
> working Windows 2000 workstation but yet...Nothing...

Update on this issue...

I fixed it by finding this registry entry and noting it was different than
others. I have no clue why this entry was the way it was but you can see
below that it is associating .lnk with win.com although ALL other entries
were correct. Including all of the .reg files noted from others. I
completely deleted the "Application"="win.com" entry as most other
extensions were listed with nothing there.

Anyway, I wanted to post this in case someone else has the same issue. It
can at least go into the google archives.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\FileExts\.lnk]
"Application"="win.com"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\FileExts\.lnk\OpenWithList]
"a"="Navw32.exe"
"MRUList"="fdeabc"
"b"="mspaint.exe"
"c"="NOTEPAD.EXE"
"d"="CMD.EXE"
"e"="command.com"
"f"="win.com"

--
-=SW=-