Wordpad shortcut target lost

[Roger R]

Win XP sp2.
Upgrading IE 6 to IE 7 caused my Wordpad shortcut to loose its target.

Hunting around I found a Wordpad...somewhere...Windows NT/Accessories? but
it didn't have the same icon as before. Previously the icon was a pad with
a quill, but the icon became a pad with a pen. I thought this probably
indicated an earlier version, but it worked anyway.

Greater saga...
Sometime later when upgrading Firefox from v2 to v3 other things went wrong.
When a program is minimised to the taskbar it does not appear there but
vanishes. Opening Task Manager enables the application to be restored using
'switch to'. I tried using 'System restore' hoping to clear this but to no
avail.

I thought...as Windows users might...that re-installing XP from the disk
might cure the taskbar problem. It didn't, but IE 7 vanished, leaving a
very basic version of IE6. Implementing all the updates has restored IE7
but the Wordpad link has lost its target again.

Where should I find the version of Wordpad with the quill pen icon and why
does it keep loosing its target?

Roger R

 

[Elmo]

Win XP sp2.
Upgrading IE 6 to IE 7 caused my Wordpad shortcut to loose its target.

Hunting around I found a Wordpad...somewhere...Windows NT/Accessories? but
it didn't have the same icon as before. Previously the icon was a pad with
a quill, but the icon became a pad with a pen. I thought this probably
indicated an earlier version, but it worked anyway.

Right-click the shortcut, click Properties, click Change Icon, select
the preferred icon.

Greater saga...
Sometime later when upgrading Firefox from v2 to v3 other things went wrong.
When a program is minimised to the taskbar it does not appear there but
vanishes. Opening Task Manager enables the application to be restored using
'switch to'. I tried using 'System restore' hoping to clear this but to no
avail.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 240. Programs Aren't Minimized in the Taskbar

 

[Roger R]

Right-click the shortcut, click Properties, click Change Icon, select
the preferred icon.

Is not quite the right answer because I have found the real problem is SP3
has moved the application files for wordpad and mspaint from 'Program Files'
into 'Windows'.

The installation record for sp3 shows wordpad.exe and mspaint.exe
uninstalled from:
C:\Program Files\ Windows NT/accessories
and installed them in a new location in Windows:
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

Clicking the shortcuts to wordpad or mspaint opens a
'missing files - searching for location' and browsing to the new location
in i386 enables Windows to find the applications.
Wordpad subsequently opens ok and Help/About Wordpad/ produces:
Wordpad Version 5.1 (build2600.xp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236 : Service Pack 3)

For the info of any others with this problem there was a little more to do
as the Wordpad desktop icon was a blank frame and the icon path needed to be
set to:
%SystemRoot%\ServicePackFiles\i386\wordpad.exe
where, as you described a suitable icon can be selected.

So the Wordpad issue is resolved but there is an issue with mspaint:

As mentioned above mspaint.exe has also changed to the new location and
setting the right target opens the apllication window with correct mspaint
menu bar and then immediatly closes with an error mssg:
'Paint has encountered an error and has to close'. 'Send error mssg?'

Any ideas?

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 240. Programs Aren't Minimized in the Taskbar

This worked fine thanks for that.

Roger R

 

[Jim]

Is not quite the right answer because I have found the real problem is SP3
has moved the application files for wordpad and mspaint from 'Program
Files'
into 'Windows'.

The installation record for sp3 shows wordpad.exe and mspaint.exe
uninstalled from:
C:\Program Files\ Windows NT/accessories
and installed them in a new location in Windows:
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

Clicking the shortcuts to wordpad or mspaint opens a
'missing files - searching for location' and browsing to the new location
in i386 enables Windows to find the applications.
Wordpad subsequently opens ok and Help/About Wordpad/ produces:
Wordpad Version 5.1 (build2600.xp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236 : Service Pack 3)

For the info of any others with this problem there was a little more to do
as the Wordpad desktop icon was a blank frame and the icon path needed to
be
set to:
%SystemRoot%\ServicePackFiles\i386\wordpad.exe
where, as you described a suitable icon can be selected.

So the Wordpad issue is resolved but there is an issue with mspaint:

As mentioned above mspaint.exe has also changed to the new location and
setting the right target opens the apllication window with correct mspaint
menu bar and then immediatly closes with an error mssg:
'Paint has encountered an error and has to close'. 'Send error mssg?'

Any ideas?


This worked fine thanks for that.

Roger R

Wordpad on my SP3 machines has not moved. Besides,
%systemroot%\ServicePackFiles\i386\ is a backup folder.
Jim

 

[Roger R]

%systemroot%\ServicePackFiles\i386\ is a backup folder.
Jim

It might be more positive help if you could state the correct path that is
supposed to be in the icon path box.

Roger R