computer problem

darbyjudy · 11-22-2010, 06:36 AM

OK I need some help. My wife has a laptop running winXP. She has this problem, when she clicks on several desktop icons instead of opening up the right application it opens the printer dialog window. One of them is Myfamily.com, and when it is clicked on the desktop it will open up the printer. She also has this in her favorites list & if she goes to internet explorer and opens it up first & then goes to favorites and clicks on Myfamily.com from there it will open OK. But if she tries to open from favorites from the start menu it opens up the printer. Any ideas.

wildtoad · 11-22-2010, 07:00 AM

Sounds like you have some registry errors that have the icon/short cut(s) pointing to the wrong executable. There are several programs available to help with this. I have used Registry Mechanic from PC Tools (PC Tools | Download Award-Winning PC Software, Windows Utilities & Antivirus Protection) and MaxMySpeed. Both work well and have had no problems with either one.

paz · 11-22-2010, 01:50 PM

Right click the icon, click properties, then click the shortcut tab. Look to see what it says beside target. This should be the executable file for the application that the icon is supposed to be for. If it is not, then something or someone has changed the target of the icon. Do you have virus and spyware protection?

Likewise, you should be able to right click the name of the program on the start menu and click properties. You should see the name of the executable file beside target.

Sergeant80 · 11-22-2010, 03:54 PM

Advanced SystemCare -- at http://www.iobit.com/systemcare.html

It heals and speeds up my PC in just 1 click, so that I do not have to re-install my Windows or purchase a new computer. It is the simplest way to protect, clean, repair, and optimize my PC. I also find that it can scan and fix what other tools miss. I really like it and best of all, it is completely free. They do not insert adware to your PC and they do not spy on you. Advanced SystemCare has received very positive reviews from publications such as Forbes, CNET and PC Magazine. It will keep your PC error-free and running smoother than ever. You can download it for free at
http://www.iobit.com/systemcare.html Checks shortcuts also. I have been using it for several years.

darbyjudy · 11-23-2010, 03:29 PM

I downloaded the program and ran it. It found a lot of problems but not the one that is causing my problem. Right now I am running Ad Aware to see if maybe a spy program is causing the problem. Right now I am about to pull my hair out. I hat to have anything beat me.

wildtoad · 11-23-2010, 06:47 PM

if you hover the mouse pointer over the myfamily.com entry in the favorites list, where does it point? If it doesn't point to www.myfamily.com try deleting the entry and recreating it. Are the desktop icons that don't work also for web pages vs. programs on your computer? If so you might want to delete them as well and recreate them.

darbyjudy · 11-24-2010, 06:36 AM

When I hover the pointer over the shortcut on the desktop it says www.myfamily.com & it should go there but when I click it brings up the printer page.
If I click on start button and go to favorites from there, everything I click on from there brings up the printer .
If I open up internet explorer and go to favorites from there everything works fine.
I have ran all the programs that was suggested to me and they did find mistakes and corrected them but nodthing so far has fixed this problem.
I use a virus program AGV
In looking & searching on Google I found a place that told me to down load a file to my desktop and then merge this file to the registry but I cannot figure out how to do this. It keeps asking me what I want to open it with.

wildtoad · 11-24-2010, 01:44 PM

Now I have somewhere else to look.... When you click on the favorites or desktop icon windows first has to determine what program to use to process the request then it passes the url to the program to handle. Normally a web address is associated with IE/firefox/etc. This seems to explain why it works if you first start IE as it is now in charge and knows what to do with www.???.

To me it appears that the file association for a web address have been set to your printer. Why and how to fix I don't know but may spend a monent looking.

wildtoad · 11-24-2010, 02:15 PM

There is a icon in the control panel (Folder Options) which allows you to view all file types and what programs they are associated to. I suspect that if you go there and look at some of the internet file extension types HTM, HTML, it will show it points to something other than IE. You have the option to change what program to bring up. Click the change button.

Question, if you create a new Favorite, do you have the same problem? or is it just on existing favorites? If the answer to #1 is yes, then the file association is wrong.

Sergeant80 · 11-24-2010, 08:26 PM

IO Bit Advanced care has under Utilities a shortcut fixer. Did you activate it? Click on Utilities and scroll down until you see the icon. Click on it and see if it is broken. If so, bring up the application program and re-create the shortcut.