Firefox wrecked my computer, Help!

[Emperor Ing]

This just isn't my day. First Inkscape refuses to allow me to open the SVG file that contains my comic stuff (if you think you can help, post here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10617722).) So someone decided I should try opening it in Firefox to see what happens. I don't have firefox on my system, because i'm used to internet explorer-

"boo! hiss! off with his head!"

...anyways, i'm used to internet explorer, mostly because it's the browser i'm most familiar with for whatever reason. So I DL Firefox. I can't remember what I did, but shortly after downloading, 90% of the icons on my computer changed (see screenshot below) and are now programs that are solely opened in Firefox. I've tried lots of stuff. I've even completely purged all traces of Firefox out of my computer (and like hell i'm letting that...thing on my computer ever again! :smallfurious:) and it's still freaked out.

Now my theory is that I might've accidentally pressed something during installation that converted my software stuff into something called an LNK file, but I need to know how to fix it. Although i'd prefer to avoid recovering every program lost, i'm not ruling that out if necessary. :smallsigh:

Anyways, here's what my desktop looks like at this present moment, and you be the judge if something's wrong.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll246/EmperorIng/Untitled-1-1.png

[Mad Wizard]

Sorry, this is totally unrelated (no advice as far as the problem goes), but where did you get that desktop image? It's awesome.

[Groundhog]

Can you change the properties of the files? Because I'm pretty sure that one of the items in a file's properties is what program gets used to open it.

[bluewind95]

Right-click, then Open With, then open with the proper program and select "always open with the selected program" should take care of anything.

But there's also going to the control panel, in the searhc box typing "file associations" then fixing the files there.

... But what I have to wonder is... HOW did you manage to associate Firefox with, like, everything? That's simply... strange.

[RS14]

I bet I know what happened.

You installed firefox and tried to open a link to a .svg file with it. In doing so, you told windows to open all links (.lnk files) in firefox.

Try http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/how-do-i-restore-the-program-that-opens-lnk-files/188032d2-e202-4ab5-8404-354efc30c13a

Note that this is probably version dependent, so you may need to do something different if this is not Windows 7.

Also note that this is probably a Windows issue--it is certainly Windows that believes .lnk files should be opened by Firefox, and again, I would guess that this is the result of a poorly considered "open with" dialog than anything Firefox did. It's a perfectly fine browser.

[Flickerdart]

.lnk files are shortcuts. All the files on your desktop and taskbar aren't the actual files. In order to dissociate Firefox from the file type, go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program.

[Kuma Kode]

LNK is the filetype of shortcuts. Somehow, you managed to associate shortcuts with Firefox. That's not Firefox's intended behavior so I don't think it's Firefox's fault. Judging by some Googling, this happened because shortcuts are not associated with any particular program, they're just special text files, really.

For some reason, Windows sees Firefox and thinks it's supposed to open special text files (It does, but of the HTML variety) and automatically associates Firefox with .LNK files.


You installed firefox and tried to open a link to a .svg file with it. In doing so, you told windows to open all links (.lnk files) in firefox.

Actually, this is probably what you did.

Changing file associations won't work because nothing should be associated with .LNK files, and "None" isn't an option in that program.

The solution to this problem (discovered through googling) requires some mucking with the registry. The steps are...


Press WinKey+R > type regedit and press Enter
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.lnk
OpenWithList should contain only:

(Default) | REG_SZ | (value not set)
OpenWithProgids should contain only:

(Default) | REG_SZ | (value not set)
lnkfile | REG_NONE | (zero-length binary value)
Make sure there is no subkey/subfolder UserChoice (If you see it, right click on the UserChoice > Delete )
Restart your system

[Kneenibble]

And I, for one, welcome our new Firefox overlords.

[memnarch]

Ah ha! So it's not Firefox's fault!
I'll just keep my head on now, thank you. :smalltongue:

[Emperor Ing]

Changing file associations won't work because nothing should be associated with .LNK files, and "None" isn't an option in that program.

The solution to this problem (discovered through googling) requires some mucking with the registry. The steps are...


Press WinKey+R > type regedit and press Enter
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.lnk
OpenWithList should contain only:

(Default) | REG_SZ | (value not set)
OpenWithProgids should contain only:

(Default) | REG_SZ | (value not set)
lnkfile | REG_NONE | (zero-length binary value)
Make sure there is no subkey/subfolder UserChoice (If you see it, right click on the UserChoice > Delete )
Restart your system

This has worked, thanks a lot. Everything's back to normal. :smallsmile: