Shortcuts opening in separate windows in XP?

Before, when I browsed through folder shortcuts in My Computer or My Home, they opened in the same window, i.e. the folder would change to the location of the shortcut. Nowadays, though, when I double-click on a folder shortcut icon, it opens in a new My Computer window. How can I get back to the old setting? Thanks.

 

In "My Computer", go to:
Tools -> Folder Options
Checkmark "open each folder in the same window"

 

That option is already checked.

Normal browsing all opens up in the same window, it's only when I open up a folder shortcut that the folder pointed to by the shortcut opens up in a new window. This didn't used to happen, but now it does for some reason...

 

Aah, I see.
Hmm, this could be a tough one to crack . . .

Could you please export the following Registry keys !?

Start -> Run -> regedt32

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory

(note: .lnk / lnkfile= .LNK / Lnkfile)

Scroll down for and individually hi-lite each key in the left pane.
From the "File" menu, select "Export"
Make sure "selected branch" is checkmarked, and save each key to a .reg file
eg. lnk.reg | lnkfile.reg | folder.reg | dir.reg

I suggest you create a new folder first, to save these .reg files in.
Then, if you could zip that folder up
(rt click folder -> send to -> compressed folder)
and attach it to a post here,
I'll see if I can find the guilty key/string/value . . .

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk:

(It's actually a .reg file, but I had to rename it to .txt in order to get the board to allow me to attach it.)

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory

(Just out of curiosity, and just for my own future reference, how do you examine the keys in a .reg file without actually inserting them into your own registry?)

 

I use "Right Click -> Send To -> Notepad" method.

Ok, give me a few minutes to examine these, and I'll be back soon

 

.LNK and LnkFile are both exactly the same as mine.
Folder is the same except you've got a couple of extra entries for AVG and Briefcase (I don't have either of these installed)
Directory: there's a few differences here, but none which suggest a change in the way folder shortcuts are handled.
So, it looks like we need to dig deeper.


Folder Shortcut:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}


I'll attach my exported key here for you to examine.
In the meantime, if anyone else has any suggestions, please feel free

 

No, I did a fc of your key and mine, and the two are identical...

 

The only other reference to the
{0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D} key I can find is here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524152}\Instance

and here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}\Instance


And then all the keys (including the first key from my previous post) are repeated again (and exactly the same, and as they should be) here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\


I'll include a copy of my keys in an attachment

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524152}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}


Good luck!

Note, if it's not a discrepancy somewhere in these two keys, then I'm going to have admit defeat . . . but I will attempt to research the problem further.

 

And here's an attachment just containing those two specific subkeys where
{0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D} is referenced

 

Sorry it took so long for me to look at this and reply to it... I hope you're still there?

Unfortunately, these keys are identical to mine as well... hmm, anything else I wonder? No one else has ever seen this problem (i.e. is it a simple setting somewhere where I just don't see it)?

I wonder why it started to begin with...

Oh yeah (I didn't mention this apparently at all previously, which is strange), not only do shortcuts open in separate windows, which is mildly annoying but can be dealt with, but after a while sometimes double-clicking on shortcut folders doesn't work at all, i.e. it neither browses to the shortcut folder in the same window nor opens it in a new window. This behavior is really annoying, since I have to then go manually through the directory tree instead of using my shortcuts. Once it starts, it never stops if I don't log out. Any ideas? Thanks...

 

Sorry to bump the thread, but I edited my above thread to further explain the problem, but that doesn't bring the thread back up to the top...

I apologize for being so slow in trying the above suggestions when they were made, I was really busy but I have more time now, if anyone has further suggestions, thanks...