Member Avatar for PaulT

Good afternoon,

I have a strange and frustrating problem with the start menu on a Windows XP Home Edition SP2 Compaq Presario laptop.

If you click 'Start' as normal and double click on any applications as normal then they do not open. I have to right click the application and select 'Open' in order for the application to open.

But to confuse the issue further the Control Panel opens as normal with a double click. So it appears to be shortcuts to .exe files that do not open after they have been double-clicked.

Has anyone any ideas what could be causing this irritation??

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Paul.

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Because right-click -> Open works while a normal double-click does not, this points less at the mouse hardware and more at how Explorer is handling shortcuts (the .lnk/exefile associations or a shell extension hooked into Explorer). was right to look for malware, and ’s pointer about mouse settings is a sensible quick check, but those checks alone won’t catch a broken .lnk handler or an Explorer add-on.

Try these ordered checks (quick to do and reversible):

  • Test whether it is profile-specific or global: create a new Windows user account and log in. If double-clicks work there the problem is limited to the original profile.

  • Test whether a startup item or shell extension is to blame: boot to Safe Mode (F8 on startup) and try double-clicking there. If Safe Mode is ok, disable non-Microsoft shell extensions using a utility like ShellExView (disable third-party entries, reboot Explorer).

  • Check the .lnk association from a command prompt. Run:

    assoc .lnk

    It should return .lnk=lnkfile. If it does not, restore it with:

    assoc .lnk=lnkfile

    Back up the registry before making changes.

  • Repair system shell files: run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt to restore corrupted system files (requires the XP CD). If nothing else helps, use System Restore to roll back to a point before the problem started.

Extra diagnostics: try an external USB mouse (rules out touchpad driver oddities), create a fresh shortcut to an actual .exe on the desktop and try launching it, and check Event Viewer around the time of the failed double-click for Explorer or application errors. If these steps don’t fix it, include the HijackThis log, the output of assoc .lnk, and any Explorer errors from Event Viewer when posting back so responders can pinpoint whether the issue is a registry association, shell extension, or malware.

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Member Avatar for The Geeky Kid

Get Hijack This and post in the Spyware and Nasties forum =)

Member Avatar for caperjack

Good afternoon,

I have a strange and frustrating problem with the start menu on a Windows XP Home Edition SP2 Compaq Presario laptop.

If you click 'Start' as normal and double click on any applications as normal then they do not open. I have to right click the application and select 'Open' in order for the application to open.

But to confuse the issue further the Control Panel opens as normal with a double click. So it appears to be shortcuts to .exe files that do not open after they have been double-clicked.

Has anyone any ideas what could be causing this irritation??

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Paul.

dose it happen to exe shortcuts on the desktop also ,if so try double clicking with the right button ,might be that you mouse settings are lefthanded .if so they can be change in the controle panell

Member Avatar for PaulT

Thank you both for your replies.

Yes it is the same with exe shortcuts on the desktop but the mouse it set to the normal left hand button.

My Computer on the desktop opens as normal with a left hand double click.

I have run scans and fixes using McAfee VScan 8, Ewido and Ad-aware. I tried running SmitRemfix but for some reason it would not recognise batch files correctly. Anyway none of these have made any difference.

I have now run HikackThis and I will post it in the relavant forum.

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