Shortcut links all opening with Internet Explorer

[Yousuf Khan]

A friend of mine just brought his laptop in to me. He said he's having
a weird problem where all of his shortcuts are being opened inside
Internet Explorer. That means even programs are being opened by IE. All
programs on the desktop are unable to open properly due to this
problem.

I tried to follow the following link to do a system restore:

All my icons have changed to Internet Explorer icon and I keep getting
- Microsoft Community
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...explorer/da5a4be0-eafb-4b82-bef9-f5aad0457f90

However, even the "System Restore" link is being opened by IE. So the
only thing I can think of now is to do a reinstall of the OS from
installation media.

Yousuf Khan

 

[richard]

A friend of mine just brought his laptop in to me. He said he's having
a weird problem where all of his shortcuts are being opened inside
Internet Explorer. That means even programs are being opened by IE. All
programs on the desktop are unable to open properly due to this
problem.

I tried to follow the following link to do a system restore:

All my icons have changed to Internet Explorer icon and I keep getting
- Microsoft Community
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...explorer/da5a4be0-eafb-4b82-bef9-f5aad0457f90

However, even the "System Restore" link is being opened by IE. So the
only thing I can think of now is to do a reinstall of the OS from
installation media.

Yousuf Khan

I'll bet your friend was trying to clean up things and deleted some files
he felt just weren't needed. Or was messin around in the registry and
deleted an entry he should not have.

 

[Dave-UK]

A friend of mine just brought his laptop in to me. He said he's having a weird problem where all of his shortcuts are
being opened inside Internet Explorer. That means even programs are being opened by IE. All programs on the desktop
are unable to open properly due to this problem.

I tried to follow the following link to do a system restore:

All my icons have changed to Internet Explorer icon and I keep getting - Microsoft Community
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...explorer/da5a4be0-eafb-4b82-bef9-f5aad0457f90

However, even the "System Restore" link is being opened by IE. So the only thing I can think of now is to do a
reinstall of the OS from installation media.

Yousuf Khan

Sounds like the exe file association has broken.
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/restore-exe-file-asso-windows-7-vista-incorrectly-associated/

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Sounds like the exe file association has broken.
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/restore-exe-file-asso-windows-7-vista-incorrectly-associated/

Thanks I'll give that a try.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I'll bet your friend was trying to clean up things and deleted some files
he felt just weren't needed. Or was messin around in the registry and
deleted an entry he should not have.

Actually, he was trying to install a pirated copy of a program, and this
happened when he tried to uninstall it. Obviously he knows better now.

Yousuf Khan