Windows 7: All Icons have Changed and lead to Microsoft Picture viewer

Hello all,

I have absolutely no idea what has happened to my computer. It was working fine when I left, when I cam home I have lost all my icons(shortcuts). My wife said that she tried to copy some pictures from her SD card to the hard drive. I have no idea if this caused the problem, but all of my icons are leading to the microsoft photo viewer. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

Hello Darrin,

Downloading and merging the lnk (LNK) option in the tutorial below should be able to fix this for you. It will restore the default associations of lnk (shortcut) files.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Suggestions :

1. Do a system restore. Pick a date BEFORE this problem as your restore point.
System Restore Point - Create

If that does not help, please clarify ....

>>>> I have lost all my icons(shortcuts)
>>>> but all of my icons are leading to the microsoft photo viewer.

If you lost all your icons, how did you know the icons led you to Photo Viewer ?

2." I have lost all my icons(shortcuts) ".....
Press CTRL + Alt + Delete keys together at the ame time > select Task Manager > Processes tab > right click at explorer.exe > click End Process > Applications tab > click New Task... > in the Open box, type explorer.exe > click OK

Are the icons/shorcuts back on the desktop ?

3." all my icons are leading to the microsoft photo viewer " .....
Use this tutorial to .....Restore File Type Associations
Default File Type Associations - Restore

Read the instructions #1 through 7 > then scroll down and click at EXE - executable application files > then follow the instructions.
Scroll down and select LNK - shortcut link (LNK ) files and do the same as EXE.

Do the icons open to correct programs now ?

Thank you both SO MUCH! The LNK restore worked great! I have also learned to create a system restore point. I'm such a novice!

You are welcome.

Wives *shakes head* Just kidding. I lucked out. Mine works in IT as well. One thing we've learned, that has helped us maintain a happy marriage....separate computers. She has a laptop, and I have my tower.

I'm wondering if she accidently changed the associations with the picture files....but either way, your fixed, so it doesn't matter at this point.

You're most welcome Darrin. I'm glad that we could help.

My son accidentally changed the file associations for .lnk to point to ms office. That messed up almost everything in the start menu and the pinned items. I did all the recommended steps and it fixed the shortcuts now. Problem is the icons have not reverted back. Right clicking on the shortcut -> properties -> icon does not have any effect

Hello shuvradeep, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you downloaded and merged the .reg file for the .lnk option posted above and restarted the PC, then you might see if rebuilding the icon cache may help.

If that still doesn't help, then please go ahead and post a screenshot showing this to see if it may help ID what the issue may be.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn