XP default profile and file associations are hosed - opening files directly associated with IE broke

[robr]

I'm posting this via google newsgroups unfortunately instead of a real
news application and it seems to have wonked out on me. Sorry if this
shows up as a repost.

My dad is having problems with his PC. Basically HTM and HTML and
other such extensions associated with Internet Explorer don't work. I
figured this would be simple to fix. I went into explorer (via RDP)
and reassociated the extensions with IE, but when I launch anything IE
related, it says it can't find IE and is trying to load it from his
user profile rather than C:\program files\internet
explorer\iexplore.exe.

I tried several things that didn't work then just created a new user
figuring a new user profile would fix the problem and I'd just migrate
his bookmarks over. Nope, same issue. Everything is trying find the
IE executable in the user profile directory. I'm not sure what's going
on or what to look at next. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi robr,

Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE

In the right pane, verify if the IEXPLORE.EXE path is set correctly.

--
Regards,

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


I'm posting this via google newsgroups unfortunately instead of a real
news application and it seems to have wonked out on me. Sorry if this
shows up as a repost.

My dad is having problems with his PC. Basically HTM and HTML and
other such extensions associated with Internet Explorer don't work. I
figured this would be simple to fix. I went into explorer (via RDP)
and reassociated the extensions with IE, but when I launch anything IE
related, it says it can't find IE and is trying to load it from his
user profile rather than C:\program files\internet
explorer\iexplore.exe.

I tried several things that didn't work then just created a new user
figuring a new user profile would fix the problem and I'd just migrate
his bookmarks over. Nope, same issue. Everything is trying find the
IE executable in the user profile directory. I'm not sure what's going
on or what to look at next. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[robr]

I Ramesh, I found with regiedt that Path was correct, but (default) was
pointing at the profile directory. I changed that, logged out (not
just out of RDP but logged out the machine with shutdown -l) then
reconnected.

Now I need to associate HTM files again with IE. When I double click a
shortcut on the desktop that's a URL, it asks what application I want
to use to load it. IE is not listed in the program list in the dialog
box, so I browse to C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe and
select it, but it doesn't show up in the list and it's not associated
even though I've just selected it (it doesn't matter if I choose the
option to use this program all the time or not).

If I go to explorer and folder options>file types, I see HTM and HTML
appear to be associated to IE (the IE icon is to the left of those
types) but if I click Change, it comes up with XML Editor highlighted
(and again IE is not shown in the list of programs).

If I click Advanced and change icon, it tells me that Windows cannot
find the file C:\DOCUME~1\Donna\Desktop\INTERN~1\IEXPLORE.EXE - so it
appears it's still looking in the wrong place.

assoc.exe run from command line just shows
..ht=htfile
..hta=htafile
..htc=
..htm=htmlfile
..html=htmlfile
..htt=HTTfile

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi robr,

Pls check here as well:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\iexplore.exe\shell\open\command

The (default) should read as:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" %1

--
Regards,

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


I Ramesh, I found with regiedt that Path was correct, but (default) was
pointing at the profile directory. I changed that, logged out (not
just out of RDP but logged out the machine with shutdown -l) then
reconnected.

Now I need to associate HTM files again with IE. When I double click a
shortcut on the desktop that's a URL, it asks what application I want
to use to load it. IE is not listed in the program list in the dialog
box, so I browse to C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe and
select it, but it doesn't show up in the list and it's not associated
even though I've just selected it (it doesn't matter if I choose the
option to use this program all the time or not).

If I go to explorer and folder options>file types, I see HTM and HTML
appear to be associated to IE (the IE icon is to the left of those
types) but if I click Change, it comes up with XML Editor highlighted
(and again IE is not shown in the list of programs).

If I click Advanced and change icon, it tells me that Windows cannot
find the file C:\DOCUME~1\Donna\Desktop\INTERN~1\IEXPLORE.EXE - so it
appears it's still looking in the wrong place.

assoc.exe run from command line just shows
..ht=htfile
..hta=htafile
..htc=
..htm=htmlfile
..html=htmlfile
..htt=HTTfile

Hi robr,

Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE

In the right pane, verify if the IEXPLORE.EXE path is set correctly.

--
Regards,

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


I'm posting this via google newsgroups unfortunately instead of a real
news application and it seems to have wonked out on me. Sorry if this
shows up as a repost.

My dad is having problems with his PC. Basically HTM and HTML and
other such extensions associated with Internet Explorer don't work. I
figured this would be simple to fix. I went into explorer (via RDP)
and reassociated the extensions with IE, but when I launch anything IE
related, it says it can't find IE and is trying to load it from his
user profile rather than C:\program files\internet
explorer\iexplore.exe.

I tried several things that didn't work then just created a new user
figuring a new user profile would fix the problem and I'd just migrate
his bookmarks over. Nope, same issue. Everything is trying find the
IE executable in the user profile directory. I'm not sure what's going
on or what to look at next. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[robr]

Thanks, before I saw this post, I ended up just searching the registry
for references to the wrong path and replaced them all with the correct
path. Things seem to be working ok now, thanks again for the help.

Hi robr,

Pls check here as well:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\iexplore.exe\shell\open\command

The (default) should read as:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" %1

--
Regards,

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


I Ramesh, I found with regiedt that Path was correct, but (default) was
pointing at the profile directory. I changed that, logged out (not
just out of RDP but logged out the machine with shutdown -l) then
reconnected.

Now I need to associate HTM files again with IE. When I double click a
shortcut on the desktop that's a URL, it asks what application I want
to use to load it. IE is not listed in the program list in the dialog
box, so I browse to C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe and
select it, but it doesn't show up in the list and it's not associated
even though I've just selected it (it doesn't matter if I choose the
option to use this program all the time or not).

If I go to explorer and folder options>file types, I see HTM and HTML
appear to be associated to IE (the IE icon is to the left of those
types) but if I click Change, it comes up with XML Editor highlighted
(and again IE is not shown in the list of programs).

If I click Advanced and change icon, it tells me that Windows cannot
find the file C:\DOCUME~1\Donna\Desktop\INTERN~1\IEXPLORE.EXE - so it
appears it's still looking in the wrong place.

assoc.exe run from command line just shows
.ht=htfile
.hta=htafile
.htc=
.htm=htmlfile
.html=htmlfile
.htt=HTTfile

Hi robr,

Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\IEXPLORE.EXE

In the right pane, verify if the IEXPLORE.EXE path is set correctly.

--
Regards,

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


I'm posting this via google newsgroups unfortunately instead of a real
news application and it seems to have wonked out on me. Sorry if this
shows up as a repost.

My dad is having problems with his PC. Basically HTM and HTML and
other such extensions associated with Internet Explorer don't work. I
figured this would be simple to fix. I went into explorer (via RDP)
and reassociated the extensions with IE, but when I launch anything IE
related, it says it can't find IE and is trying to load it from his
user profile rather than C:\program files\internet
explorer\iexplore.exe.

I tried several things that didn't work then just created a new user
figuring a new user profile would fix the problem and I'd just migrate
his bookmarks over. Nope, same issue. Everything is trying find the
IE executable in the user profile directory. I'm not sure what's going
on or what to look at next. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome robr.

--
Regards,

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


Thanks, before I saw this post, I ended up just searching the registry
for references to the wrong path and replaced them all with the correct
path. Things seem to be working ok now, thanks again for the help.