All Desktop Shortcuts, New and Old, Now URLs

[Ahlyssah]

I think this all started two days ago. My shortcuts for the handful of Steam games I actually made shortcuts for don't work. When I tried clicking on them the first time, my computer asked what program I wanted to use to open them with. I've checked the properties, and they are all URL files now. I tried restarting the computer, I tried deleted and re-creating a shortcut, and it's still a URL. If I go through Steam itself, the games play just fine, and I made a shortcut for Fallout 3 and Morrowind by right-clicking the .exe file in my files. I even tried downloading a new game that I have never touched, and the same problem arises.

Here's what comes up when I open the shortcut for Mass Effect (the new game, just now downloaded) in Chrome:

[{000214A0-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
Prop3=19,0
[InternetShortcut]
IDList=
IconIndex=0
URL=steam://rungameid/17460
IconFile=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam\games\c90dffafdc48bbe7733601b8b30354d995063209.ico

Yeah, I know, cry me a river. Shortcuts not working isn't a huge deal. But I don't like it when things stop working for no reason. It makes me wonder what else is going wrong with my files.

Another weird thing: two of my games, Morrowind and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are saved to my C: Drive along with the Steam Client, and everything else is on a different hard disk. Morrowind had the exact same issue as all the other games on that other disk, but VtMB is totally unaffected.

[mimizukari]

that's correct? it's supposed to be a url that's run through the steam client.

[Ahlyssah]

But then why is it not running through Steam? I was prompted to pick a program to open the shortcuts, and Steam was not one of them. My options were Google Chrome, Notepad, Wordpad, Paint, and Photoshop. These shortcuts worked perfectly the day before yesterday.

[999999999]

They are no longer "Application (.exe)" files in the properties menu?

[Ahlyssah]

Nope. And there seems to be no way to edit them or change the target.

[Aracron]

I have the same issue. Tried the numerous fixes suggested found via Google search, but none of them worked.

[wuddih]

try winkey+r and enter
steam://nav/tools
steam should focus and switch to tools menu .. if it doesn't do that, the steam browser protocol is not registered to your system (probably got removed at a windows update) .. reinstall steam then.

[Aracron]

Tried that. It does navigate to tools, but icons messed up. Other posts are starting to pop up about this, now.

[mimizukari]

u can make ur own steam shortcuts using the steam app and -applaunch command parameter if all else fails

Originally posted by Wynnda, Miko of the Gusta:

https://gfycat.com/MeagerWeightyCheetah

(step 1, create shortcut on steam's own shortcut to make another , step 2 is go into properties on new shortcut, and then the rest is like in here)


i'd do full 1080p but it'd take soooooooo long to upload with my connection, so ... this should suffice


note: this shortcut is also pinnable to quick launch taskbar/wherever else you want! more versatile than the normal steam shortcuts [basically what I do for all my important games I wanna launch any time https://i.imgur.com/CWmeyPK.png ]

[Aracron]

I will just launch from library until a real fix is out.

[Ahlyssah]

Well, it's good to know I'm not alone in this :) And Aracron, I hope you're right and a fix is coming.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Ahlyssah:

Well, it's good to know I'm not alone in this :) And Aracron, I hope you're right and a fix is coming.

there's nothing for steam to fix, this occurred because of a windows update or similar that you guys installed, it disassociated steam with steam:// urls

[Aracron]

Originally posted by Wynnda, Miko of the Gusta:

Originally posted by Ahlyssah:

Well, it's good to know I'm not alone in this :) And Aracron, I hope you're right and a fix is coming.

there's nothing for steam to fix, this occurred because of a windows update or similar that you guys installed, it disassociated steam with steam:// urls

All of my steam registry entries are there and correct. I can run a steam protocol url from the Run bar. So, that is not exactly true.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Aracron:

Originally posted by Wynnda, Miko of the Gusta:

there's nothing for steam to fix, this occurred because of a windows update or similar that you guys installed, it disassociated steam with steam:// urls

All of my steam registry entries are there and correct. I can run a steam protocol url from the Run bar. So, that is not exactly true.

regardless, if it was a steam problem, then for one, your existing shortcuts wouldn't just all change to .url files at once, which means it most likely happened from a windows update, you'd probably need a fresh install of steam to fix... which is why I set my windows updates to metered and only download maybe once a year when I have time to deal with breakage.

[Aracron]

Okay, I went to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and selected "Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program". Found .url and chose "Internet Browser". Suddenly, all the steam icons resolved.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Aracron:

Okay, I went to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and selected "Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program". Found .url and chose "Internet Browser". Suddenly, all the steam icons resolved.

ah, in that case, the association that broke, and the reason why reinstalling steam didn't help people is because the update must've killed all the browser defaults for .url.. Lol...