Desktop Shortcuts to Websites

[mishuga1]

I have several icons I created as shortucts to websites. Until recently when
I selected these icons, I was taken directly to the websites. Now, I am
getting a message box telling me to select what program I want to use to
access these websites. The program I select is Internet Explorer and it does
take me to the website.

Is there an easy way for me to eliminate this intermediary step, so that i
can go directly to the websites, as I did before.
Thank you for your help.

 

[Jose]

I have several icons I created as shortucts to websites.  Until recently when
I  selected these icons, I was taken directly to the websites.  Now, I am
getting a message box telling me to select what program I want to use to
access these websites.  The program I select is Internet Explorer and it does
take me to the website.

Is there an easy way for me to eliminate this intermediary step, so that i
can go directly to the websites, as I did before.
Thank you for your help.

If any of your shortcuts work, compare the properties with some that
don't. If none of them work, check the properties and they should
have two tabs - General and Web Document. On the General tab, the
Type should be Internet Shortcut. If not you may have to delete and
recreate them like philo says.

One thing I like to do in the browser is use the "Links Toolbar" in
Internet Explorer or the "Bookmarks Toolbar" in Firefox.

Once your browser is up and running, you can drag and drop your
favorite sites (by dragging the icon found in the address bar) to this
toolbar and then when your browser is running, single click one of the
links and you will go right to that page, sort of like a Quick Launch
icon works. You won't have to minimize or stop your browser and then
double click some link on your desktop (a waste of perfectly good
mouse clicks). As you know, stopping and starting the browser takes
way too long, so if it is already running and you can just click a
link once to go to your favorite page this will save you that time.

In my Firefox, I have about 15 Bookmarks that show up under the
address bar in a separate row with all my favorite links. One click
and I'm there! I have things like Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, eBay,
etc. all just one click away. You can also right click these
shortcuts to delete them, rename them (sometimes the names are too
long). They generally keep their icon so you can recognize them by
that as well as the name. You can drag the icons in the toolbar
around to put the most frequently used ones on the left (or right) to
order them by use.

If you are not running this toolbar and enable it, there will be some
useless links you probably don't want, so you can just delete them,
then add your own. In Firefox, you can also edit the Bookmarks
Toolbar in the Bookmarks drop down.

Now, let us know if you still have a shortcut problem.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi,
Open 'Folder Options' in 'Control Panel' (or Tools > Folder Options in
Explorer) and find the entry for:

.URL - Internet Shortcut

....and click on the 'Advanced' button. Select 'open' from the list of
commands and click on the 'Edit' button (if no 'open' listed, then click on
the 'New' button instead). Type in the following where it says 'Application
used to perform action':

rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL %l

....also, check the box marked DDE and in the box marked 'Application' type:

shdocvw

....in the , box marked 'Topic' type:

System

....click OK to exit that dialogue and then OK and OK again to exit 'Folder
Options'

Your Internet Shortcuts should now work again!


==


Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Jose]

I have several icons I created as shortucts to websites.  Until recently when
I  selected these icons, I was taken directly to the websites.  Now, I am
getting a message box telling me to select what program I want to use to
access these websites.  The program I select is Internet Explorer and it does
take me to the website.

Is there an easy way for me to eliminate this intermediary step, so that i
can go directly to the websites, as I did before.
Thank you for your help.

When you get prompted to enter the program and choose IE, be sure the
checkbox that says "Always use the selected program to open this kind
of file" is checked.

This should associate the file type (an Internet shortuct) to
Internet Explorer (or your default browser). Future attempts to open
files of this type should then automatically use IE - if the
association effort works properly. This may not work if there is
another problem.

You first need to look at the Properties, Type of file on the General
tab of the afflicted shortcut and make sure it says Internet Shortcut
and that you check the box when prompted to choose your program.

If you follow all these steps and still have the problem, then you can
try some of these other things, and/or report back and we can try
something else.

 

[Taylor]

I have several icons I created as shortucts to websites. Until recently when
I selected these icons, I was taken directly to the websites. Now, I am
getting a message box telling me to select what program I want to use to
access these websites. The program I select is Internet Explorer and it does
take me to the website.

Is there an easy way for me to eliminate this intermediary step, so that i
can go directly to the websites, as I did before.
Thank you for your help.

You should open the link, then when the box comes up, highlight IE or whatever broswer your using, then click the box that says,
"Always Use This Program For This Type Of File" Or something like that

 

[Elmo]

Use the URL, and HTM/HTML fixes here:

Fix File Associations.
http://dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm