FF (or me?) messed up IE shortcuts 1

[cbs604]

I think I have created a bit of a mess here.

I uninstalled FF and then found shortcuts to url's on the desktop were still looking for FF. Creating new shortcuts in Iexplore did not work as well. IE did not offer to make it the default browser, so I set about editing the registry and changing ref to firefox.exe to iexplore.exe. (Possibly not my most brilliant move, I now realise)

Have re-installed IE but still nogo. Favorites within IE can be created and work fine. But a shortcut on the desktop brings up the File Download dialog box with a warning about harmful files.

The properties of the shortcuts are pointing to the page name and not the url. All favorites and shortcuts have ".url" appended to them.

I humbly seek (cap in hand) some advice on how to fix this, short of a complete re-install. I thought maybe, install Netscape, make it the default browser, and then return to IE and make it the default again, in the hope it may reset IE's settings.

It seems like IE is now punishing me for daring to even think about using something else!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Brodie

 

[smah]

This is the part that bothers me:

The properties of the shortcuts are pointing to the page name and not the url. All favorites and shortcuts have ".url" appended to them.

Is my understanding correct that all other aspects of IE are behaving properly other than the existing desktop shortcuts? If you create a new desktop shortcut via 'right-click, new, shortcut' does it work? If you create a new desktop shortcut by dragging an address from IE's address bar, will it work?

 

[cbs604]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It looks like IE is working OK including everything to do with favourites.

I removed all existing shortcuts and have tried creating them by:

1) copying a favourite to the desktop
2) right clicking within a page and "create a shortcut"
3) both methods you suggested above.

In all cases the icon on the screen is not normal - it is a small IE logo within a white box. The properties of the shortcuts all point to the page name, with ".url" appended, rather than its url.

I also tried this fix

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

and it made IE again offer the default browser option, but had no effect on the shortcuts.

Cheers,
Brodie

 

[smah]

Assuming that you're using Windows XP:

Open Windows Explorer or My Computer. Go to Tools, Folder Options, File Types tab. Find the extension url, and click the Advanced button. Select the Open action, Edit button, and make sure that the application used to perform the action is set to exactly: rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL %l

 

[cbs604]

Using win2k.

Went there as suggested and found no Advanced button but a Reset instead with a message something like "using customised configuration". Anyway, pressed the Reset button and all is now back to normal.

Many thanks, and a "star for smah".



Cheers,
Brodie

 

[bcastner]

I should tell you this is a well known symptom of malware.
Please see faq608-4650