How do I turn off display of ".url" in Links/Favorites?

[Robbie Hatley]

I had a problem recently where links in emails in Outlook Express
would always launch empty browsers instead of going to the page
they were supposed to. I found some help for that on an OE group
and fixed it. (Involved changing some things in File Types in
Folder Options.) But in the process of fixing one thing, I seemed
to have caused another problem.

Now, all of my links in my "Links" bar and "Favorites" menus are
presented with ".url" extensions, which are ugly and take up a
lot of space on the links bar. I thought turning those off would
just be a matter of unchecking the "always show extention" box
on the "Folder Options\File Types\Internet Shortcut\Advanced"
dialog. But no, that had no effect! I still get "Yahoo.url",
"Google.url", etc.

So, how do I turn off display of the ".url" in "Links" and
"Favorites" shortcuts?


Puzzled,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

The steps below are from Windows XP system. The steps may vary for Windows
9x systems.

Open Control Panel, Folder Options
Click File Types dialog
Scroll down to the entry URL - Internet Shortcut
Click Advanced button
Uncheck Always show extension
Click OK, OK and close the dialog

 

[Robbie Hatley]

I had written:

I had a problem recently where links in emails in Outlook Express
would always launch empty browsers instead of going to the page
they were supposed to. I found some help for that on an OE group
and fixed it. (Involved changing some things in File Types in
Folder Options.) But in the process of fixing one thing, I seemed
to have caused another problem.

Now, all of my links in my "Links" bar and "Favorites" menus are
presented with ".url" extensions, which are ugly and take up a
lot of space on the links bar. I thought turning those off would
just be a matter of unchecking the "always show extention" box
on the "Folder Options\File Types\Internet Shortcut\Advanced"
dialog. But no, that had no effect! I still get "Yahoo.url",
"Google.url", etc.

So, how do I turn off display of the ".url" in "Links" and
"Favorites" shortcuts?

and "Ramesh, MS-MVP" replied:

Open Control Panel, Folder Options
Click File Types dialog
Scroll down to the entry URL - Internet Shortcut
Click Advanced button
Uncheck Always show extension
Click OK, OK and close the dialog

Scroll up. See the part in the message you replied to
-- and quoted! -- where I wrote "...had no effect..."?
Well, the reason I wrote "...had no effect..." is because
unchecking that checkbox had no effect. Which is to say,
it didn't work. That's why I wrote the post in the first place.

So I ask again:

How do I turn off display of the ".url" in shortcuts in
my "Links" and "Favorites" shortcuts?

And thrice again, unchecking that "always show extension"
checkbox had no effect, even after re-starting the computer.
If the cure was that simple, I wouldn't be writing this.

Does anyone here have a clue as to what might be causing this
problem?


Still puzzled,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Missed that part!

Ok. Can you export this registry key and post the contents here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut

(Click Start, Run and type Regedit to open the Registry Editor)

 

[Robbie Hatley]

Missed that part!

You're forgiven. Thanks for the quick come-back.

Ok. Can you export this registry key and post the contents here:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut

OK, exported that to a file in my TEMP dir; opened in notepad.
Wow, there's a lot of stuff in there! Here, I'll cut-n-paste it:

//=================BEGIN QUOTE OF REGISTRY BRANCH=======================//

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut]
"EditFlags"=dword:00010002
@="Internet Shortcut"
"IsShortcut"=""
"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000008

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\CLSID]
@="{FBF23B40-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\DefaultIcon]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,75,00,72,00,\
6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,30,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell]
@="open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\open\command]
@="rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL %l"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\print]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\print\command]
@=hex(2):72,00,75,00,6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,\
00,20,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,\
25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,\
00,68,00,74,00,6d,00,6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,\
6e,00,74,00,48,00,54,00,4d,00,4c,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\printto]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\printto\command]
@=hex(2):72,00,75,00,6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,\
00,20,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,\
25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,\
00,68,00,74,00,6d,00,6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,\
6e,00,74,00,48,00,54,00,4d,00,4c,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,20,00,22,\
00,25,00,32,00,22,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,33,00,22,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,34,00,\
22,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{FBF23B40-E3F0-1
01B-8488-00AA003E56F8}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\IconHandler]
@="{FBF23B40-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\PropertyHandler]
@="{FBF23B40-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{FBF23B40-E3F0
-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}]
@=""


//=================END QUOTE OF REGISTRY BRANCH=======================//


I hope that means more to you that it does to me!
Looks rather like chicken scratching to me, I'm afraid.


Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Start, Run and type:

regsvr32 /i shdocvw.dll

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Missed that part!

You're forgiven. Thanks for the quick come-back.

Ok. Can you export this registry key and post the contents here:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut

OK, exported that to a file in my TEMP dir; opened in notepad.
Wow, there's a lot of stuff in there! Here, I'll cut-n-paste it:

//=================BEGIN QUOTE OF REGISTRY BRANCH=======================//

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut]
"EditFlags"=dword:00010002
@="Internet Shortcut"
"IsShortcut"=""
"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000008

 

[Robbie Hatley]

After perusing my registry for causes of my ".url" problem,

Start, Run and type:
regsvr32 /i shdocvw.dll

Wow, that worked great! The ".url" extensions no-longer show
in links. Cool!

And I see it added some lines to my registry, including:

"NeverShowExt"=""

so it looks like it's a permanant fix.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome.