8/4/2019 When You Select Programs From the Start Menu or
Shortcuts Nothing Happens
1/2
When you select programs from the Start menu or shortcuts
nothing happens, the "Open with" dialog
box is displayed or a specific program runs.
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CAUSE
The .lnk association is either missing, incorrect or corrupted.
Because all shortcuts and Program Menu
items are files with a .lnk extension. Selecting one either
brings up the "Open with" dialog box, a specific
application such as Notepad.exe or Wordpad.exe or doesn't do
anything.
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RESOLUTION
You can correct this by either restoring the registry key from
another working computer or manually
replacing the registry key.
WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious,
system-wide problems that may require
you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot
guarantee that any problems resulting
from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at
your own risk.
To restore the registry key from another computer, perform the
following steps:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and select the following
subkey:2. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk
3. From the Edit menu, click Delete.4. On another Windows NT 4.0
computer, start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and select the
registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk.
5. From the Registry menu, click Save Key.6. Copy this file to
the computer exhibiting the problem or to a floppy disk.7. On the
computer exhibiting the problem, recreate the registry key by
selecting
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and then from the Edit menu, click Add Key.
Type .lnk for the key name.
8. Select the new key, click Restore from the Registry menu, and
select the file from the othercomputer or floppy disk.
9. Quit Registry Editor and restart the computer. Test a Program
menu item or shortcut.To manually enter the information, perform
the following steps:
8/4/2019 When You Select Programs From the Start Menu or
Shortcuts Nothing Happens
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1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe), select the
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subkey, and then click AddKey on the Edit
menu.
2. In the Key Name box type ".lnk" (without quotation marks),
and then click OK. Note that youshould leave the Class box
blank.
3. In the Add Value dialog box, click OK to leave the Value Name
blank, and click REG_SZ in theData Type list.
4. In the String Editor box, type "lnkfile" (without quotation
marks), and then click OK.5. Select the .lnk key you just
re-created under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subkey. On the Edit
menu, click Add Key and then type "ShellNew" (without quotation
marks). Note that you should
leave the Class box blank.
6. Click Add Value on the Edit menu, type "command" (without
quotation marks) in the Data Namebox, click REG_SZ in the Data name
box, and then type "RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere
%1" (without quotation marks) as the string value.
7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.
