Vista - Some Shortcuts Don't Work

I'm having trouble with shortcuts not working (not doing anything) in Vista. About as much as I can explain is that shortcuts with greyed out fields don't work, but shortcuts with all the fields editable work fine. Examples below.

Works:


Doesn't Work:



Any help that can be provided will be of great assistance!

Is there anything like an application DNS in Windows?

Hi Arcking,

If the shortcuts will not work, then the easiest way to fix the problem is to go to the program's exe file and right click on it and click "Create shortcut". You can then replace the old shortcut with the new one.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

That would obviously work, but I'm hoping to find the cause of this syndrome. There are many shortcuts that don't work, and I'm hoping not to have to recreate them all.

Arcking,

Give this a try to see if it will help since you have alot of shortcuts acting this way. It sets the default association back the shortcut extension. Go to this site below and click on the lnk in the box to download the reg file to your desktop. Just follow the rest of the usage instructions at the site for how to use it.

File association fixes for Windows Vista

Hope it helps,
Shawn

That didn't work either...I'm tempted to reformat...

Arcking,

Is it just for a few certain programs that the shortcuts no longer work for, or is more serious than that? If it's just a few programs, you might try reinstalling them to see if it helps. Otherwise, a reinstall may take longer, but may save you time and a further headache.

Sorry,
Shawn

I would say about 50% of the programs I use (I haven't tried all) no longer open from their shortcuts (both Desktop and Start Menu).

Any idea what might have caused this? (Do the screenshots help?)

The example you gave was an Excel shortcut. Have you run Detect & Repair
from the Help menu of Excel?


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]



"Arcking" <Arcking.3594q6@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:Arcking.3594q6@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

Great suggestions, but unfortunately it did not work, even with the "Restore my shortcuts while repairing" checked. This problem also shows up in other shortcuts, such as those of iTunes and Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Interestingly, while the shortcuts for Word and Excel do not work, those for other Office products do work, such as those of PowerPoint and Outlook. It seems that the shortcuts of the programs that I use most often have ceased functioned, while the shortcuts of programs that I rarely use continue to function. I don't know if that might have any impact. More examples of non-functioning shortcuts below.

Doesn't work:

Googling on "installer shortcuts" brought up a wealth of info. I found this
thread that describes a situation similar to yours:

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...f133a5bceb72b8

and the OP indicated that the solution offered by Ramesh worked. So give
that a try & let us know.


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]



"Arcking" <Arcking.359mrz@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:Arcking.359mrz@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...