Desktop and Start button shortcuts Not working

I was cleaning up and I deleted a file or folder in error and:

All of my Desktop Shortcuts are not working.
All of my Start button Shortcuts are not working

All Shortcuts are displaying as "********.exe.lnk" (******** = the applications.exe file name)
All Shortcuts are displaying the Notepad icon (Use to be the icon for the Application it was activating)

If I click on any Shortcut all I get is Notepad with some random character and some text strings.

I found all of the programs that use to be activates with the shortcuts and if I click on its .exe file the application starts up and can be used with no problem.

For instance Internet Explorer:
- Shortcut Link displays as Internet Explorer.lnk
- Link has same icon displaying as all other shortcuts
- if I go Program Files>Internet Explorer>iexplorer.exe and click on it Internet Explorer starts up and works

All the programs, shortcuts are suppose to activate, are present and working as expected its just that the shortcuts will not activate them anymore.

I tried to recreate the shortcuts but I get the same result as described above.

Any help as to how I can correct would be appreciated

Thanks
albanello

Shawn
Thank you for your response

I looked in the recycle bin already and did not see a file or directory that I thought could be it.

The way I got into this situation was I had some Malware that I got rid of and everything was working again. I was in the process of cleaning up file created as a result of the malware removal utility. I did a search for the files, I needed to get rid of, and I think the search displayed some files in a hidden directory and I delete them before I realized I made a mistake. I don't see anything that looks like a system file or directory in the Recycle Bin.

- Do hidden files and directories show in the recycle bin, I was surprised the search would show them much less allow me to delete them.

- Does some one know what directory/file would be in the hidden stuff, relating to shortcuts, so I can look and see if they are still there.

- Does some one know of a registry entry that has shortcut stuff

To make matters worse I did not create a system restore after getting rid of the malware........dumby me.

Thanks again for your response.
I sure hope someone can help me out of this mess.

albanello

Thank Brink

That is a lot to understand and do for someone with the limited experience I have. I think I'll wait till tomorrow morning and reread several times before I try it. I would think the safest thing for me is to do the VerifyOnly first just to see if there is a problem first and if so do the ScanNow.

I'll try it tomorrow morning when I am more awake.

Thanks again

albanello

1) "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" Support analyzed the problem and walked me through the removal process.

2) "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" started reporting it was blocking malicious websites my computer was trying to access, this started right after I clicked on a link in a email I received. The messages where continuous with different website URL's

3) I am happy with "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" Support there advice corrected that problem. The problem start a day or two after "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" Support fixed the problem and right after I clicked on a link in a email a friend sent me. I should not have clicked on the email link.

Thanks for you suggestion
I'm going to try what Brink suggested as soon as I have a chance to digest the information he sent

albanello

Correction
3) .......The problem start a day or two after "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" Support fixed the problem and right after I clicked on a link in a email a friend sent me. I should not have clicked on the email link.

Change to:
3)........The shortcut problem start a day or two after "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" Support fixed the problem and I deleted some files/directories the were create by the Malware removal utility. I think they may have been some system files/directories, Not sure but the short cuts went bad RIGHT after I delete the filles/direrectoy