lnk file association

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Guest

Long story short, I'm another one of the dozens of people whose shortcuts and
start menu files have turned into unassociated .lnk files. I've looked at
several other threads and tried the fix that they point to, namely the .reg
fix file. However, whenever I try to merge the file I get an error message
that reads:

Cannot import C:\lnk_vista.reg: Not all data was successfully written to the
registry. Some of the keys are open by the system or other processes.

I've tried closing every program in the task manager that will stay closed
and it still gives the error message. I've tried moving the file from C:\ to
the desktop, tried running regedit and merging the file through that and no
luck. Could it have something to do with the fact that I manually assigned
an association to the .lnk extension through the Default Programs option? If
so then is there any way to dis-associate them so they can be properly
re-associated? Or does anyone know any other way to fix this problem?
 
Daemonfyre,

Have you verified that you have the right to modify these regkeys? You may
have to take ownership of the keys your regfile modifies and then grant
yourself (or your group such as Admins) full access. Apply the change
recusrively (to the key and all subkeys). The keys are probably
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile.

Thanks,
Ilia
 
Yes, I went in and verified each item under the key individually, all were
set to admin group(which is me, as this is my home comp and I'm the only
user) except one that was set to "TrustedInstaller" I set all of them
specifically to my profile, rebooted and tried again, no luck, still gives
the error message.
 
Have you tried to do it in safe mode? Do you have any spyware
protectors/registry watchers running?
Ilia
 
Tried in safe mode, no luck. Also tried in safe mode with command prompt,
still no change. And I've gone through every program that's listed in the
task manager that would close and stay closed and tried it again, still no
luck. It just keeps giving me that error message.
 
Hmm. Well, let's do it the hard way then. Please install Process Monitor
from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/processmonitor.mspx.
This nice program allows monitoring all file, registry and other activity.
Start it up. Then configure it to show registry activity only (the toolbar
button that looks like regedit.exe's icon pressed, other two not pressed),
and open the reg file. The message should ask you if you really mean to add
that stuff to the registry. Do not press anything, go back to Process
Monitor, scroll down to where regedit.exe first appears in the Process Name
column. Right-click, Include..., Process Name. Now you only see what's
regedit doing to the registry. Clear the view by pressing Control+X keys or
the little page and erazer button on the toolbar. Now go back to that
confirmation dialog and press Yes.

Process Monitor should show all the registry operations that regedit tried
to do to change the registry according to the reg file. In the Results
column, search for anything other than SUCCESS or NAME NOT FOUND or REPARSE
or BUFFER OVERFLOW, these are expected. ACCESS DENIED would be good, or
something like that. In the Path column, it should mention where exactly the
access is denied. Then try setting right permissions on these keys.

Ilia
 
The only thing that's showing anything other than those normal results you
listed is:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\CTF\DirectSwitchHotkeys

The result is NO MORE ENTRIES. I check and set it's permissions to my
account too but still get the same message.
 
Anyone got any other suggestions or any idea why none of what is supposed to
work is working? I know I'm not the only one having a problem like this,
there's even someone else posting with the exact same problem on the help
page for the file association fixes(commend #4):
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/

It's really annoying having to track down .exes or having to go through the
properties menu every time I want to start a program.
 
No luck, restarted, still gives error message. Tried running the process
monitor too, no changes.
 
Could you post the regfile you are trying to apply, or point to where you've
got it? I'd like to try it myself.

Do you have spyware protection tools, uninstall monitors or registry
cleaners running?

Process Explorer
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx)
can list all handles opened by all processes. You can give it a try, and see
if anything references keys mentioned in your reg file.

Process Explorer can kill pretty much any process dead. For example, if you
kill explorer with it, it won't respawn. You can try killing explorer with
it (or whatever you find opens them subkeys) and then apply the reg file
from command line.

Ilia
 
The link to the file is the one I posted earlier:
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/

I downloaded the lnk fix file from there. And I tried the new program you
suggest and I don't see anything that looks to me like it's trying to access
the keys, I made sure any of the Norton stuff that came with the Vista
upgrade was killed and killed Windows Defender, still got the message.
Killed explorer and ran the file through Process Explorer and it still gives
the error message.
 
Try removing this part:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property
Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

Ilia
 
Yay, progress! Ok, that time it took the file and the changes, no error
message. But all of my lnk icons are still Adobe Reader icons(the last
program I manually assigned the extension to through Default Programs when I
was trying to make certain of what had happened) and still open through it
even after a restart.

Ilia Sacson said:
Try removing this part:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property
Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

Ilia

Daemonfyre said:
The link to the file is the one I posted earlier:
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/

I downloaded the lnk fix file from there. And I tried the new program you
suggest and I don't see anything that looks to me like it's trying to
access
the keys, I made sure any of the Norton stuff that came with the Vista
upgrade was killed and killed Windows Defender, still got the message.
Killed explorer and ran the file through Process Explorer and it still
gives
the error message.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
If there is a DefaultIcon key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile, delete the
DefaultIcon key.


Daemonfyre said:
Yay, progress! Ok, that time it took the file and the changes, no error
message. But all of my lnk icons are still Adobe Reader icons(the last
program I manually assigned the extension to through Default Programs when
I
was trying to make certain of what had happened) and still open through it
even after a restart.

Ilia Sacson said:
Try removing this part:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer
Property
Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

Ilia

Daemonfyre said:
The link to the file is the one I posted earlier:
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/

I downloaded the lnk fix file from there. And I tried the new program
you
suggest and I don't see anything that looks to me like it's trying to
access
the keys, I made sure any of the Norton stuff that came with the Vista
upgrade was killed and killed Windows Defender, still got the message.
Killed explorer and ran the file through Process Explorer and it still
gives
the error message.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Nothing like that there, and wouldn't that just fix the icon display? My
real issue is getting the .lnk shortcuts to open the files they are supposed
to be directed at like they are supposed to(IE my Guild Wars link opening
Guild Wars instead of making Adobe Reader try to open the .exe file for
instance).
 
Sorry, I had understood that your .lnk files were now working, but showing
the wrong icons, from your last post. You may also have to repair .exe file
associations from http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/ . When you
right-click on a .lnk file, and open the target location, does clicking on
the actual .exe file the shortcut points to open Adobe Reader, and does it
have the Adobe Reader icon?
 
I think I would try the .exe file association repair from
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/ as well. Somehow, Adobe Reader
is wrongly in the equation registry-wise, but I'm not sure where that is.
If you could, export (by right-clicking on the key) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk
to, say, your desktop and save it as Lnk.reg. Right-click on Lnk.reg, and
choose Edit. Notepad will open; copy all the information and paste it into
your reply, so that we can see exactly what is in that key.
 
Exe filefix didn't do anything. Here's the exports from .lnk:


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk]
@="lnkfile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx\{000214EE-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx\{000214F9-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx\{00021500-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew]
"Handler"="{ceefea1b-3e29-4ef1-b34c-fec79c4f70af}"
"IconPath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\
00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,\
31,00,36,00,37,00,36,00,39,00,00,00
"ItemName"="@shell32.dll,-30397"
"MenuText"="@shell32.dll,-30318"
"NullFile"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Config]
"DontRename"=""



and lnkfile(just in case):


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile]
@="Shortcut"
"EditFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"="@shell32.dll,-4153"
"IsShortcut"=""
"NeverShowExt"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\CLSID]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\OpenContainingFolderMenu]
@="{37ea3a21-7493-4208-a011-7f9ea79ce9f5}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\IconHandler]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property
Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"
 
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