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i have a Windows CE 5.0 based device.
none of ".lnk" shortcut files (all the shortcuts on desktop) don't work and i get this error:
"error opening the shortcut or locating target filename"
the shortcut icons changed to unknown file type too. but some days ago i had not this problem and everything was normal.
i can't remember sharply , but i think the problem started when i installed a tool like Arabizer (to support Arabic/Persian language).
maybe some keys / values in the Windows Registry has been changed or deleted or something like that.
anybody knows about this?

losingsleeep
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1 Answers1

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.lnk are text files, you can view them with any text editor, their format looks as follows:

18#\Windows\MyApp.exe

where 18 is the length of characters after pound character : \Windows\MyApp.exe

so you should check if your shortcuts are still correct, also make sure files are not in UNICODE which would double it lenght.

You might also make sure that the file to which shortcuts links actually exists.

here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms861519.aspx your will more on lnk in windows ce 5.0

marcinj
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  • thanks, but the .lnk files are correct and worked before correctly. i mean the built-in desktop shortcuts of windows like "messenger.lnk", "media player.lnk" , "internet explorer.lnk" and etc.. there maybe another problem like a flag or path change in the registry or something like that i think. – losingsleeep Feb 06 '12 at 05:38
  • I dont know about any registry entries that might cause such problems. Maybe this program you installed messed up your desktop lnk files? – marcinj Feb 06 '12 at 09:34
  • the problem is a result of an App installing, but any .lnk file at any place and folder does not work. i think it's a global problem. i saw this in two or three devices. yes the app did something to Windows. my hand made .lnk file and builtin .lnk files worked correctly before this problem. – losingsleeep Feb 06 '12 at 13:35
  • You might check if you now have in registry key like: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk] this would mean that lnk file was associated with some program - which could broke your links. If so, then solution would be to delete (or rename .lnk to ._lnk to be able to recover later) this registry entry and restart device. – marcinj Feb 06 '12 at 14:05
  • i checked it before. there's no .lnk key values. there was only a key : [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services\ExcludeExts] that had a value 'ExcludeExts' with data : "lnk,tmp,cdb,mdb" , that i removed 'lnk' from the string data, but nothing changed. – losingsleeep Feb 06 '12 at 16:04
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    You can try something like this: get some healthy Windows Ce device with correctly working links, dump its registry to reg file, then dump your broken device registry to reg file, finally compare both reg files using windiff or whatever else. I doubt this program could modify ROM files, it either modified registry (as you suspect) or it modified .lnk files. – marcinj Feb 06 '12 at 16:56
  • thanks for your help luskan, i'll try that and i'll write the results here. – losingsleeep Feb 07 '12 at 05:55