Windows 7: Programme links not working

The images of all desktop shortcuts have disappeared and are not working a long with all of the programme links in the start menu. An error message did appear when originally clicking on a link but now only asks me to 'Choose the programme you want to use to open this file'.

I have read forums about similar problems but none of the solutions have worked. I have also tried system recovery but it wont allow me to restore to a point before the problem occured. I tried restoring to factory settings with the installation disk and installing a windows link repair tool but the problem has remained.

Please help

Hello LMJ, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like your shortcuts (LNK files) have gotten their default associations messed up some how. You could download and merge the lnk (LNK) and exe options in the tutorial below to restore the default associations of shortcuts and application files, and hopefully fix this for you.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

I'm really surprised that a full factory recovery didn't sort it for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn