Vista - NEW UPGRADE - all shortcuts are munged

Upgraded from XP home to Vista Home Basic a few hours ago... no
problems, exept that every shortcut on my system now has an IE icon
and when I attempt to open any linked program, it opens IE and
immediately closes.

I can right-click the link, select Properties, then Open File Location
and access the program/folder from there. It runs fine and does all
that it's supposed to do.

If I attempt to create a new shortcut and send it to the desktop or
Start Menu or to the Quick Launch, same problem: it has an IE icon and
only opens IE for about two seconds.

Am I the first who has experienced this?