Wednesday 18 December 2013

Problems with Shortcuts

Good evening readers! For launching certain frequently used applications, we use shortcuts. The shortcut files which are generally present in the desktop have the format of ‘.lnk’. There is a rare problem which occurs with this shortcut files because of the user error. It is when the user right clicks the shortcut and changing the default “open with” application. This makes all the ‘.lnk’ files (all the shortcuts) to open with that particular application. Thus, the shortcut will not open the application it intends to. This issue can be corrected in many ways.
Right click on the shortcut and go to properties.

Now, type the correct application path which the shortcut needs to open in the Target.

But, this process seems very tedious and time consuming as in our problem, we need to change the path of all shortcuts.

Another method to correct this problem is to uninstall the application which was set as the default launcher of the shortcut (‘.lnk’) file. Once you uninstall the application, all the shortcuts get automatically changed to open the intended application correctly.
There is a problem in this method. If the Windows inbuilt applications like Windows Media Player or Internet explorer is chosen as the default launchers, they cannot be uninstalled.
Now, let us see how to tackle this problem. Although these applications cannot be uninstalled, they can be Disabled. This is done as follows,
Step1: Go to My computer and go to Uninstall or change a program.

If it is not found there, go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features

Step 2: Go to the Turn Windows features on or off

Step 3: Now, uncheck the application which you need to disable.

That’s it guys! Your problem is fixed. Good luck!
Please share the post if you find useful!

10 comments:

  1. just delete the program you selected as default through add or remove in control panel. RESTART THE COMPUTER and icons will be changed to what they were..i have tried it and it worked WIN7

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  2. What happened to mine was that they were all notepad files, so I opened one and choose Google chrome as my default since you can't disable notepad, and when I uninstall Google chrome voila! Thanks for the article

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  3. Hi I did this and it worked. I managed to associate everything with MS Word. So when I re-enable Word the same problem happens. The others solutions I saw was to adjust the registry setting ?
    I was going to try uninstalling word to see if that works, or do I need to repeat my mistake and associate it with something I don't want to use to get it to reset itself ??
    frenchsugar@hotmail.com

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  4. The second solution will work better.

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  5. If u have chosen an application which u need, install an application which u don't want and redo the mistake with the new application. Now, try uninstalling the secondly installed application. Good luck!

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  6. Thank you very much!! it worked for me

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  7. didnt work for me, when i follow Step 2: Go to the Turn Windows features on or off, notepad is still appearing

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  9. It worked for me and my client! Thank you very much.

    Miranda

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  10. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC was trying to open all my .exe files, which resulted in every program being changed to look like a PDF file! I uninstalled Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and that solved the problem. However, I keep trying to reinstall Adobe, because I want the proper program to open REAL PDF files, but each time it's installed, the problem occurs, so I uninstall it again. Ugh. I'm trying to find a permanent solution. I'll try some things mentioned in this article. Thanks!

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