Users often face a problem when all shortcuts are opened by one program. It can be a browser, notepad, Total Commander, or another application. This usually happens if the user sets the default program to open files with the .lnk extension. As a result, the launch of any application ends with an error, since all shortcuts are opened by one program.
We fix the problem
Solution for Windows 7
Click "Win + R" and enter "regedit". Click "OK".
The "Registry Editor" will open. Go to the branch "HKEY_CURRENT_USER", "Software", "Microsoft", "Windows", "CurrentVersion", "Explorer", "FileExts", ".lnk".
Here you need to delete the "UserChoice" subsection and restart your PC.
Solution for Windows XP
You need to download the Fixlnk utility. The archive will be downloaded. Open it and click on the registry file. We agree to make changes.
Reboot your computer.
It is worth noting that a similar situation can arise with .exe extension applications. In this case, the registry editor will fail. Therefore, you need to boot from the installation disc or from a USB flash drive with Windows PE. Here you need to run the Registry Workshop utility, go to the registry branch "HKEY_CURRENT_USER", "Software", "Microsoft", "Windows", "CurrentVersion", "Explorer", "FileExts", ".exe" and delete the UserChoice subkey. After completing the operation, you need to restart the PC.
Hello! In this post, we will talk about a very life situation that the sister of the author of the blog faced on her work computer. Its essence is that all shortcuts are opened by one program.
That is, see, for example, the Opera icon began to open through Word. In addition, as a result of this failure, the server of the working program installed on the PC stopped working. And this is, you see, a specific jamb.
How could this have happened? It's very simple. When opening the shortcut, the "Open With" command was used, as a result of which all files with the extension ".lnk" were assigned the wrong program to open.
But there is no big fear in this, everything can be returned to its place without a lot of blood. To do this, the author of the blog on the Web found a simple and easy way to return the associations of shortcuts with native programs:
Let's say right away that we will do all the manipulations using the example of Windows 10, although on other versions of this OS everything will be the same. So, first of all, we open the registry editor.
To do this, click on the "Start" button and enter the "regedit" command:
After opening it, we remember that you need to work here very carefully, without making any erroneous manipulations. At this step, we need to follow the path:
Find the "UserChoice" subsection there and be sure to delete it. This is done by right-clicking on it:
That, in principle, is all business. After restarting the computer, all shortcut associations will revert to. As you can see, there is nothing complicated about it. By the way, the sister of the author of the blog managed to fix this problem even over the phone.
But if some of you are not at all friendly with the registry editor, or are afraid to delete something there, then there is another option. It consists in running a small program on the computer called Unassociate File Types.
It should be said that it doesn't even require installation. Therefore, we take it from the link from the official website, then unpack it and launch it. But at this step, the author was waiting for a bummer, because this utility does not work on Windows 10:
But if someone has Vista or Windows 7 installed, then you should not be afraid, the program will start without problems. Then in the "File types" column we find the extension ".lnk" we need and click the "Remove file association" button:
At this point, we will conclude the article, since the question of why all the shortcuts are opened by one program or how to return the association of shortcuts with is completely exhausted.
If you still have questions, hurry up to ask them in the comments. We will instead solve your problems and discrepancies. And in conclusion, you can watch another life video.
In the process of working with a computer running Windows, the following problem may occur: when you click on the shortcut of a disk or network resource, the system issues a warning that the disk or network resource is unavailable, to which the Ink shortcut refers. In most cases, this problem is not difficult to solve.
If you open a disk or resource through a shortcut, which, for example, is placed on the desktop, then the error "Unavailable disk or network resource referenced by the lnk shortcut" occurs as a result of the fact that the address specified in the shortcut does not match the actual path.
To make it clearer, let's give a specific example. The user inserted the USB flash drive into the USB port of the computer and since he often uses this drive, he decided to take his shortcut from “Computer” to the desktop. After that, he inserted a USB flash drive into the same port many times and everything worked. However, at some point, the usual USB, for example, was busy, which is why I had to connect the drive to a different port, and this time the flash drive did not open through a shortcut on the desktop, but instead a window with an error popped up.
The reason for the error in the unavailability of the disk or network resource referenced by the lnk shortcut is that when the user connected the USB flash drive to the same port, the system always assigned a name to it, for example, "Drive G", but since it is now inserted into different USB, it has been given a different name.
In the case of a network drive, the reason is even simpler - the server is unavailable. Yes, a ping can go to it, but there is no connectivity. Access settings or something else may have been changed.
If an access error occurs, it is more likely related to the hardware configuration, then when all icons, for example, on the desktop, have the lnk extension, the problem is caused by a configuration change in the file association.
It can occur, for example, when the user tried to open a shortcut in some program and, when performing the appropriate action in the application selection menu, by default checked the "use the program for all files of this type" checkbox. As a result, the shortcut files became associated with the selected application, which cannot launch programs by shortcut.
To get everything back like you could use the Unassociate File Types application.
- Download, install and open the program;
- Enter .lnk in the search bar;
- Select.lnk from the filtered list;
- Click on "Remove File Association".
As a result of the actions performed, the associations specified for this file type will be deleted. Now the shortcuts will open as needed, and the error "Unavailable disk or network resource referenced by the lnk shortcut" will not appear.
All shortcuts began to have the .lnk extension, how to fix through the registry
If you don't feel like installing a third-party application, you can troubleshoot INK shortcuts through the registry. To do this, follow these steps:
- Press the key combination "CTRL + R";
- Enter "regedit" and click "Ok";
- Open the category “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT;
- Find .lnk in the displayed list and specify the value "lnkfile" in the parameters (if there is something else there, then first you need to delete the old value and only then enter and save the new one).
After that, the shortcuts will work as expected again.
In contact with
This file does not require programs to open, it is a regular Shortcut that can be opened in a standard way (by double clicking on it).
.Lnk extension What is the file format?
LNK files are part of the user's desktop. They are labels. They can also be found under the name "bridging files".
Files in this format are unique to the Windows operating system. Files like them are actively used in other operating systems (for example, in MacOS), but they have a different name. They are a kind of pointer to a file with the extension .exe, which is located not on the desktop, but in some folder on the user's computer. When you double-click on the shortcut with the LNK extension, the EXE program associated with it starts.
What do LNK files look like?
LNK files are located on and look like a small curved arrow icon. For each software with the EXE extension, one bright is created, which is placed on the user's desktop. This is necessary so as not to overload it, because files in EXE format sometimes have a solid weight.
With the help of a file with the LNK extension, you can quickly call a specific program from the desktop. This will save you the time spent searching for the application in the main drop-down menu. You just need to click on the file with the LNK extension on the desktop.
Now you know how to open lnk and what programs to use for this!
By default, all versions of Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 do not display file extensions on their desktop (for example, extensions such as exe, mp3, txt, doc, avi). This is done in order to make the life of the system user easier and not to embarrass him with incomprehensible "postscripts" at the end of the file name. But you should know that Windows allows you to enable the display of hidden file extensions. You can enable this mode through the section of the Explorer settings "Folder Options" or "Folder Options". In it you need to find the option "Hide extensions for known file types" or "Hide extensions for known file types" and deactivate it (uncheck the box).
Once you disable this option, Windows will display most of the file extensions in Explorer and you will be able to distinguish the file types yourself. In our opinion, this option should be enabled by default, since the invisibility of extensions carries a certain risk for the computer. After all, it is very easy to disguise any executable file with the EXE extension as a text file with the TXT extension. The result will be something like "filename.txt.exe". If Windows is configured to hide extensions, then such a file will be displayed in explorer windows as "filename.txt" and the user will not be able to understand that this safe name is hiding an executable file. If you try to open it, then run the specified EXE file for execution. If it contained malicious code, the computer could be seriously damaged.
This is why it is advisable to always show file extensions in windows windows. But even if you disable the option to hide extensions through the "Folder Options", some files will remain in the system, whose extensions will still not be displayed in Windows Explorer. We are talking about files with the extension LNK (file shortcut), URL (shortcut to a link to an Internet address), PIF (shortcut to a DOS application).
To hide these extensions, Windows uses special keys in the system registry. The name of these keys is very "talking" - "NeverShowExt". If you set such a key for any extension through the registry editor, then it will not be displayed in the system either.
Below is a list of the most popular files whose extensions never appear in Windows Explorer:
- LNK (shortcut file or folder)
- URL (shortcut to a link to an Internet address)
- PIF (shortcut to DOS application)
- SCF (Windows Explorer batch file)
- SHS (Shell Scrap Object, scrap file)
- SHB (document shortcut)
- XNK (sync directory shortcut)
As you already understood, each of these files has a corresponding "NeverShowExt" entry in the system registry and automatically hides its extension in Windows Explorer, even when the option to hide extensions is disabled.
Let's return to the fact that this is a potential risk to the system. Agree, any attacker can hide malicious code as a text file in the form of a scrap file, for example filename.txt.shs. Obviously, in this case Windows will not display the ".shs" extension and you will only see "filename.txt". If you run it, you can easily inject a virus onto your computer.
Is there a solution to this problem? How do I fully open any file extensions for display on the system? Below we will give you the answers to these questions!
All you need to do is delete the "NeverShowExt" key written in the registry next to a specific file type. After this operation, you will see the extension of this file anyway.
So, in order to raise the security level of your computer, follow these steps:
1. Press the key combination WIN + R to launch the Run dialog box. Type "regedit" in it and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.
3. In the search bar for registry objects, type "NeverShowExt" and press Enter. This will start the process of searching the system registry for the string value you entered. As a result, the search will stop at the first record containing the string "NeverShowExt".
Continuing your search, you will find many more registry keys with the entry "NeverShowExt", but you only need to delete it in the branch that describes the file extension you need. Be very careful when removing this parameter, as the same parameter can be specified for other registry objects besides file extensions.
Before removing the "NeverShowExt" parameter for a specific extension, make a backup copy of this registry key. To do this, call the context menu with the right mouse button and select the "Export" item.
4. After creating the backup, select the "NeverShowExt" option in the right pane of the Registry Editor and press the "Delete" button on your keyboard to delete it. Then press the "F3" button to find the next occurrence of the "NeverShowExt" string. Delete this value for extension keys over and over again until you get a "Registry lookup complete" message.
5. This completes the work. After you finish removing the "NeverShowExt" extension from the registry, you must restart Windows. Now in Explorer (Explorer) absolutely all files will be displayed with extensions.
Note: you can use a special script that will automatically delete all "NeverShowExt" lines in the registry, written as a parameter for files with specially hidden extensions. Download the ZIP archive, unpack it and run the file with the REG extension. When asked about making changes to the registry, give your consent. After restarting your computer, you will be able to see absolutely all files with the extension.