Have you tried right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting Properties?  The url will be listed and may give some idea to what is wrong.  Choose a site (with a short url!) and see what the link in the shortcut is.

I just thought of this.  Could it be possible that I need to reassociate the file type with Internet Explorer?  I was having problems openning up gifs and I did this and it has been fixed.

If so, I am not forsure which url file to change and what to change the settings to.  On my computer it has the following url types:

URL: AOL Resource ID
URL: File Protocol
URL: File Transfer Protocol
URL: Gopher Protocol
URL: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
URL: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol with Privacy
URL: LDAP Protocol
URL: MailTo Protocol
URL: News Protocol
URL NNTP Protocol
URL: QuickTimePlayer Protocol
URL: RLogin Protocol
URL: Snews Protocol
URL: Telnet Protocol
URL: TN3270 Protocol

Hi!  Thanks for the reply.  I tried that and the properties window does not show a url.  I went to nbc.com and what it showed was nbc.com.url. Here is a image of my properties window:

I think jimw is correct.  The association when corrected should appear on the file types list as "Internet Shortcut".  Strange you don't have it.

In the Properties screenshot you posted, there should be a second tab called "Web Document" that normally contains the url.

The one that's missing/damaged is the URL file association. You can download a fix for that from Dougknox.com. The one you need is the link labelled "URL File Association Fix".

Jim

Jim,

I tried to install that file, but it came up with the following registry error:

Cannot import C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\XP_URL~1.REG: The specified file is not a registry script.  You can import only registry files.

Also, I am using Windows 98.  Would the XP fix work on my computer?

Thanks a bunch!

Michael

Also, I am using Windows 98. Would the XP fix work on my computer?

It's very unlikely. That fix was for XP, as noted at dougknox.com

I'll see if I can find anything about what the corresponding fix for Win98 is.

(edit) First, try "Reset Web Settings" in Internet Explorer. That's in Tools/Internet Options/Programs. If that doesn't clear the problem, see this Microsoft Knowledge Base article which describes fixing a variety of problems with IE 5 and IE 6 on platforms ranging from Windows 95 to Windows XP, including Win98 and Win98 Second Edition.

Jim

Message Edited by jimw on 04-13-2004 01:40 PM

If you cannot find a simple fix gizmo, create the association from scratch.  The following is based on Win95 which is very similar to the entries in Win98 and XP.  Get your list of file types then click "New Type" and add the following entries:
Description    Internet Shortcut
Associated extension    url
Check the "Confirm open after download" box

Then in the Actions section click "New" and make the following entries
Action    Open
Application used...   rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL%
Note that if the application does not exist an error dialog will appear.

Reverse through the dialogs to save it.

I noticed in my setup of XP the application ends %l
and uses DDE, application is shdocvw

Jim and Starman99,

Thanks for all of your help.  Resetting the Web settings worked!  I really appreciate all the help you gave me the past two days in trying to figure this out.

Michael

Desktop Links wont work