Cannot open shortcut

[amyy]

I cannot open all the shortcuts (including shortcut to Firefox)on my desktop after installing the latest Windows Update yesterday.
Tried rebooting the PC but the problem still persists.

The operating system I use is Windows XP home edition

Would appreciate if someone could help.

[bluewalrus]

Are you sure the program is still there, can you still launch the program?

[amyy]

Thanks for your kind response, Bluewalrus.
I checked the control panel. Mozilla Firefox is still there but without the size.
I have just reinstalled the program.

Wonder if you or anyone know why all the shortcuts become inaccessible when I install the latest windows update.

Also is there anyone to retrieve "shortcut to word.doc" on the desktop?

[BLiZZaRD]

Can you right click the desktop to get the context menu?

If so, do that and choose the "Arrange Icons By" option, then look and see if "Show Desktop Icons" option is checked (it should be), then see if the "Lock Web Items On Desktop" is checked (it should NOT be).

If that doesn't fix the problem, then most likely the problem is your Desktop folder got moved into another folder. Sounds odd I know.

Right click the start button and choose "Explore" then find your account name Which should be under "Documents and Settings"

So if your account is named "amyy" it should look like:

Documents and Settings >> amyy >> Desktop (each being a folder inside the other).

If it is not there, run a search for it, find it through the Explore menu and drag it back in place.

If none of those work, report back, there may be other options.

[amyy]

Many thanks to BLiZZaRD for your kind response.

"Show Desktop Icons" option is checked
and the "Lock Web Items On Desktop" is unchecked.

Desktop folder is in the right place as advised:
Documents and Settings >> amyy >> Desktop

But I still could not access the shortcut file.

Would appreciate your further advice.

[BLiZZaRD]

Your OP says "all the short cuts" the last 2 posts say "the" shortcut.

Vast difference in diagnosis, so... which is it, all shortcuts or just one? :)

[amyy]

Sorry, should be all shortcuts

[BLiZZaRD]

Okay, I am just getting off work now, but it takes a couple hours to get home. Once I get home and settled I will have another look.

[amyy]

No hurry, BLiZZaRD.
Greatly appreciate your kind assistance.

[BLiZZaRD]

Okay, the next step is to see if you had any errors while the update was going on. Remember the date you did the update, then, go to the control panel, click on "Administrative Tools" then click on "Event Viewer" There are 4 categories here, clicking on each one on the left will open the events on the right.

Check all 4, but mostly we are interested in the Application and System tabs.

You are looking for an error or caution (errors are noted by a red circle with an X in it.)

Check for these with the date of the updates and if you find any post them here. (or a screen shot if you would rather)

If there are no errors for the date of the update then we need to try something else:

Reboot in safe mode. If you aren't sure how to do that, just ask, its fairly simple.

Once booted fully into safe mode check if the icons work. If they do, then we need to restore the computer to a date previous of the updates, if they do not work we have other issues.

[djr33]

A simpler solution to all of this might just be making new shortcuts. If you can make a new shortcut on the desktop and it works, then you might able to avoid "fixing" it by just making new shortcuts to everything you need.
Whether you can or can't make new shortcuts will also help the process of figuring out what is wrong.

Of course what Blizzard says above is the correct way to actually fix what went wrong, but it might take a lot of time to figure it out, and if you can avoid that by just making new shortcuts, it might be easier for you.

--
Note: the process of making new shortcuts involves finding the original, somewhere on your harddrive (C:/ probably), then looking through /program files/ and other places where applications are stored. Find the "program.exe" (where 'program' is whatever software you want) and then create a shortcut to it. Be careful not to move/delete anything while looking around inside the system folders, but just looking won't hurt, nor will creating shortcuts.
You can create a shortcut by right clicking and making a shortcut (it will appear in that folder-- drag it to the desktop) or right click "send to" and choose "desktop as shortcut".
The easier way would be to copy and paste (on the icon right click, copy; on the desktop right click, paste) from the start menu if you still have all the shortcuts you need there.
----

Also, if you have not already done so, be sure that these programs still exist. The shortcut will not work if it has nothing to point to, such as if the program was deleted. That might be the case (if something went terribly wrong in the update), so you could have to restore to an older setup or perhaps reformat the computer. If you can open the programs (like word and firefox) other ways, then this is not the problem.
(But, in theory, the update could have MOVED the files to that the shortcuts can't find them. That would be unusual, but, again-- in theory-- possible.)


One possibility for why they don't work is that you might not have the same permissions as before the update if something got changed or your user profile was updated (such as whether you are/were "admin" and other issues like that).


If for some reason none of the ideas above or the ideas from Blizzard can help, you could of course just try to reinstall all the software and that should restore the shortcuts on the desktop (unless the update corrupted some major system files, etc., which is very unlikely).

[BLiZZaRD]

Everything Daniel says is correct. However, if the problem isn't because of the updates then you probably should know. Could be a little virus, could be a rouge registry problem... I know that for me, I would want to know why the problem exists and try to get rid of that problem.

Which is what I am trying to do for Amyy. If I am alone in that way of thinking, I understand (won't be the first time ;) ) and I will just hush.

[amyy]

Greatly appreciate Blizzard and dir3 for both your detailed and thorough response to my queries.

I have followed all the steps provided...
checking the control panel,
rebooting the PC in safe mode,
reinstall the programs (Firefox etc) that come with a shortcut
I could create shortcut and access newly created shortcuts

While the PC is in safe mode, I still could not access the "shortcut to Word Documents" files that I created earlier. As these doc files contain updates that are not available in the original files, I need to find ways to retrieve them.

I reboot the PC to the normal mode.
When my cursor moves to one of the "shortcut to Word Document", I notice that the location of the file is "G:desktop" and not "C:desktop" , G being my external harddrive.
Likewise for all the other "shortcut to Word Documents" (all the location happened to be "G:desktop" )which are inaccessible.

It is at this point in time that I go to "My Computer" and found that the G drive icon is missing!!!!
I unplug and replug the external harddrive and the problem is now resolved.

Thank you so much to both Blizzard and dir3, especially Blizzard, for the time and effort both of you spent in helping me to resolve the problem.
I greatly appreciate it.

[BLiZZaRD]

Yay!

So it was a missing directory.. just not the "Desktop".

Glad it is resolved!