Shortcut creation changed -what did I do?

[John]

I have always created shortcuts to folders, drives, etc., and when I
would click on the shortcut of a drive, an Explorer window would open,
and be showing all of the directories and files in the root of the
drive. However, that does not work any more on one of my XP systems.

What happens when I go through the SAME routine to create the shortcut
(right-clk on desktop; select New, then Shortcut to bring up the Create
Shortcut dlg, and go the drive or directory I want a shortcut for on the
desktop), is that it does not create a shortcut, but creates a Search
window, with the desired Search object being the object that should have
been an Explorer window shortcut.

How can I correct this?

Thanks,
John

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

John,

What's the default option (shown in Bold letters) when you right-click the
folder shortcut? Meanwhile, execute the following command from Start, Run
dialog:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I have always created shortcuts to folders, drives, etc., and when I
would click on the shortcut of a drive, an Explorer window would open,
and be showing all of the directories and files in the root of the
drive. However, that does not work any more on one of my XP systems.

What happens when I go through the SAME routine to create the shortcut
(right-clk on desktop; select New, then Shortcut to bring up the Create
Shortcut dlg, and go the drive or directory I want a shortcut for on the
desktop), is that it does not create a shortcut, but creates a Search
window, with the desired Search object being the object that should have
been an Explorer window shortcut.

How can I correct this?

Thanks,
John

 

[John]

John,

What's the default option (shown in Bold letters) when you right-click the
folder shortcut? Meanwhile, execute the following command from Start, Run
dialog:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Ramesh,

I created a shortcut, and the option in bold is SEARCH. However, if I
check a shortcut created before a few days ago, it is OPEN.

I did the regsvr32 /i shell32.dll cmd and still get the same problem. Is
there a fix? In the mean time, I will reboot and see if it is fixed.

Thanks,
John

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

John,

This is interesting. Right-click the newly created shortcut and choose
Properties. In the "Shortcut" tab, make a note of the target command, and
post it here.

You may try fixing the file association settings for the following items:

1. Folder
2. Directory
3. .LNK fils (shortcuts)

File association fixes:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com

John,

What's the default option (shown in Bold letters) when you right-click the
folder shortcut? Meanwhile, execute the following command from Start, Run
dialog:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Ramesh,

I created a shortcut, and the option in bold is SEARCH. However, if I
check a shortcut created before a few days ago, it is OPEN.

I did the regsvr32 /i shell32.dll cmd and still get the same problem. Is
there a fix? In the mean time, I will reboot and see if it is fixed.

Thanks,
John

 

[John]

Ramesh,

The link, http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/linkfile_fix.zip, is
corrupted. It saves as a 1kb zip file; when opening with PowerArchiver,
it shows it to contain about that, but it will not totally extract.

I finally was able to extract it, but Regedit would not take it either
by clicking on it, or by importing it from within Regedit; it said it
was not a legitimate reg file.

The target command on any newly created shortcut is SEARCH.

When I did the regsvr32 /i shell32.dll cmd I rebooted and XP crashed
upon rebooting, so I booted in Safe mode and restored to a previous
date. It has booted fine since then, but the shortcuts still do not
work. What was that cmd supposed to do?

Thanks,
John

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

John,

I'm able to extract the .REG file, and can merge the contents to the
registry. Perhaps you can try opening Regedit.exe and try importing the REG
file this time.

The command fixes incorrect value data in the following locations:

HKCR\Directory\shell

And re-creates other missing keys/values. Shell32.dll registration is useful
in many situations, and often recommended in the newsgroup.

BTW, what was the crash about? Any mention of a file name?

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Ramesh,

The link, http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/linkfile_fix.zip, is
corrupted. It saves as a 1kb zip file; when opening with PowerArchiver,
it shows it to contain about that, but it will not totally extract.

I finally was able to extract it, but Regedit would not take it either
by clicking on it, or by importing it from within Regedit; it said it
was not a legitimate reg file.

The target command on any newly created shortcut is SEARCH.

When I did the regsvr32 /i shell32.dll cmd I rebooted and XP crashed
upon rebooting, so I booted in Safe mode and restored to a previous
date. It has booted fine since then, but the shortcuts still do not
work. What was that cmd supposed to do?

Thanks,
John

 

[John]

Ramesh,

The crash occurred early in XP boot, and it just recycled back to system
re-boot, so I quickly went to safe mode and did a restore. Perhaps I
will try your cmd again and see if it fixes the shortcut prob.