User set .lnk association to Word 2007 Server 2008 R2 Terminal Server

Nightmare. A user has managed to associate .lnk (shortcuts) with Word 2007. I cannot seem to find a way to remove this association on Server 2008 R2 (running as a TS with Citrix XA 6.5). I tried using a program called "unassoc" but this only seems valid for Win7 or Vista.

Anyone know where this association can be removed?

Tim Alexander

Posted 2013-07-11T11:34:59.277

Reputation: 1 798

It might be helpful to export only your HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk registry key and paste the contents of the resulting text file (open in notepad to see) in your question. – PatKilg – 2013-07-11T12:51:26.147

Answers

Win+R, type regedit then Enter

BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY.

Select Computer
File -> Export
Put somewhere safe.
Double click that file to restore Registry to where you started.

Go to key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk

Now, since I have NO IDEA how they possibly did this (I couldn't figure it out at least), I'm not sure what your key looks like. But here's mine below (Win8), I suggest looking for things that are out of place and removing them. FYI @= means the key value name is (Default) and what follows in quotes is whats in the Data field.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk
    @="lnkfile"
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx
      @=""
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellEx\{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX} (x4)
        (These four keys look like they might be system dependent)
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew
        "NullFile"=""
        "IconPath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,36,00,37,00,36,00,39,00,00,00
        "ItemName"="@shell32.dll,-30397"
        "Handler"="{ceefea1b-3e29-4ef1-b34c-fec79c4f70af}" (Probably system specific)
        "MenuText"="@shell32.dll,-30318"
        "NullFile=""
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Config
          "DontRename"=""

I'd delete any other key you see in there, especially one that references Word. Typically that would be a ContentType key or a "Word.Document.#" entry as the @= value rather than "lnkfile"

PatKilg

Posted 2013-07-11T11:34:59.277

Reputation: 755

Have You tried to search .ink in the regedit I think to remember that there is a place with all file extension associations. Right at the beginning.

when you find the .ink key just remove the property-value pair containing Word 2007.

Remember to make a bakup of regedit before removing something.

I used to open regedit a lot until I changed to ubuntu.

I think there is a other way going to explorer -> options and something else.

Falk

Posted 2013-07-11T11:34:59.277

Reputation: 299

Your last sentence seems to be referring to the Folder Options / File Types tab. That was removed after XP.

– Karan – 2013-07-12T00:07:07.250

Really? I thought win 7 and server 2008 also had It. – Falk – 2013-07-12T10:47:42.267

It was removed after XP. See bottom of Win Explorer section here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista#Windows_Explorer

– Karan – 2013-07-12T15:52:32.360