windows has stopped recognising .ink files

adogintheocean · 23 Sep 2006 at 21:26

windows has stopped recognising .lnk files

windows crashed earlier so i restart, now it doesnt read .lnk i cant open applications excpet for firefox.

accessed system restore and restored it to before this problem occurred and it still fialed to fix the problem.

cant access programs through run and .exe

cant install new programs as .exe files dont work either.

any ideas?

Steve09 · 23 Sep 2006 at 21:34

Any Virus'?

adogintheocean · 24 Sep 2006 at 19:25

Performing a full scan now. But nothin so far. i ended a process in task manager and since i restarted its gone like this. i can still access files but i have to go through open with..

How do i start in safe mode? or to system restore from boot?

bledd · 24 Sep 2006 at 20:21

do you mean .lnk?

adogintheocean · 24 Sep 2006 at 20:26

Yes. Sorry.
Is there anyway to solve this problem now?

Scottland · 24 Sep 2006 at 20:32

Can you make a new .lnk, and does that work?

Hit F8 before the windows booting screen, to get a boot menu. Or just hit the reset switch whilst it's booting and when it restarts you'll get a boot menu.

How are you trying to access system restore?

adogintheocean · 24 Sep 2006 at 21:59

not only does .lnk not work but also .exe files arent read.

tried to restore the system to before i had the problem but still no joy

bledd · 24 Sep 2006 at 22:00

'might' be your registry is borked for the lnk type..

can you run programs by going straight to their exe instead of using shortcuts?

ie, start run, winword (for ms word if you have it)

adogintheocean · 24 Sep 2006 at 22:08

no doesnt let me run programs from their .exe

bledd · 24 Sep 2006 at 23:01

probably have to format mate, repair install might do the trick though

n3vrmind · 25 Sep 2006 at 00:43

sounds more like the .exe association is broke

can be fixed but its not easy and i dont remember the details, needless to say you'd have to be pretty familiar with the windows registry and the recovery console, you are better off reinstalling windows

EDIT:

i've seen this happen where people have right clicked an exe file and chosen 'open with...' then associated exe's with another program, the other program doesnt run either since it too is an exe

now heres a possible fix (will put the correct association for .exe back in the registry)
click start > run, type 'command.com'
should work as the .com extention wont have been altered

in the command window type 'notepad.exe' (exe's work here because a command prompt doesnt use the association to run it)
enter the following (everything between but not including the ------)

----------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
----------

save the file to c:\exefile.reg
then back in the command window type 'regedit.exe c:\exefile.reg'

with any luck that will fix your problem

adogintheocean · 25 Sep 2006 at 20:03

cant get into regedit.
command.com doesnt work either

n3vrmind · 26 Sep 2006 at 01:43

hmmm, works on my XP and Vista installations

are you using 2000? i do remember wondering what the hell they'd done with command.com when i first switched to 2000, in fact i hadnt realised it was back in XP till trying it yesterday before posting a reply

anyway, any kind of diagnosis is going to be too tricky to do through forum posts, might be time to bite the bullet and reinstall