Shortcuts don't work on new computer

One additional thing. If I go to my old computer and attach to my new computer drive in File Explorer, the links all work fine from the old computer. But I get nothing on the new one. I suspect some type of new security situation and I'm hoping there is a way to turn it off.

Hello,

We'd like to get more information regarding this so we could further check and provide a more established workaround.

How did you complete the action? Please provide the exact steps performed so we can further advice.

For a shortcut to actually work on a new PC, you'd need to locate the executable (.exe) file of the each application, then right-click, select Send to Desktop (create  shortcut). Transferring shortcut from old computer to the new one could cause issues as file path is stored in old PC and not in new one; both PC could actually have a completely different directories.

Let us know if you need any further clarification.

Regards.

Are you referring to having copied over your own folders & files into C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents etc? 

• If you have copied them into exactly the same place and your username is the same as you had in your previous Windows 7/8/10 computer then the shortcuts should still work.
• If your previous computer did not use C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents etc for user files then all your shortcuts will be wrong.  {This definitely applies if you had Windows XP.  I cannot remember where Vista put user files.}

For shortcuts to your own files that no longer point to the correct place, right-click on the shortcut, select Properties and then

• correct the path & filename shown in the Target field
• delete the entry in the Start in field.

I did not understand what you were trying to say in your post about "If I go to my old computer and attach to my new computer drive in File Explorer, the links all work fine from the old computer". 

• How were the computers / drives connected?
• Were you testing that the old computer could find the old files on the old computer or that the old computer could find the files after they had been copied onto the new computer?

Denis

don't even show the location of the old file  

That could be a symptom of a permissions problem without giving you that clear diagnostic.   Instead of trying to use the .lnk file normally try opening it in Notepad to see what happens.  In any case if you can open it in Notepad you may get a clearer clue about what it should be showing you using the GUI.

 

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
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I am not referring to shortcuts to .exes. I am referring to shortcuts to files in other directories that I have created over the past 5 years of using my machine.

When I got my new computer, I loaded FreeFileSync and copied the entire directory tree over to the new computer. All of the files are physically present and all of the directories have exactly the same names. But all the .lnk -Shortcut files are broken. And when I look in properties for the files, I can not even see the name of the file or the old directory so that I can recreate the link. They are blank. 

I do not use the Documents folder for my files. I use C:\ with a small set of directories for different types of activities. If I moved my old files that I have from many years ago into \documents, then all of those links would get broken. If you are telling me that the use of \documents is a new Microsoft requirement, then I have no idea why you would do that to long time existing users.

I copied the files over the network using a file sync utility. The directory structure and file content between the machines are identical. But if I double click a file-shortcut on my new machine I get nothing. If I go to my old computer and attach to the new machine and double click the same file-shortcut, it opens the file on my old machine. Why you would take a directory relative symbolic link and turn it into a machine absolute symbolic link is beyond my understanding.

But the properties of the link files on my new machine are blank. So I cannot see what file is referred to. So I cannot fix the link. And I cannot carry my old computer around with me so that I can refer to it every day when I need to jump to another directory or file. I am assuming there is some type of file security involved using the machine name and I am hoping you have a way to turn that off.

I am assuming some type of permission problem as well. When I try to open one of these file-Shortcuts in Notepad I get "Element not found". I searched for this and found some Lenovo software that I should remove. I have a ThinkPad but I couldn't find the specified items on my machine. I also ran a SFC /SCANNOW as recommended by some people. I got "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them." Odd in a computer only one week old. (A couple of .MUI files.) But it didn't fix the file-Shortcut issue.

Try copying a few shortcuts across manually [ctrl-c to copy them to a USB stick or other drive then ctrl-c to copy them from there to the new computer]. 

Do they also have the problem you have described? 

If the shortcuts work when copied the way I have suggested then I think your file syncing utility cannot handle the syncing of shortcuts.

If the shortcuts work when copied the way I have suggested then you could use an xcopy command to copy them all to a USB stick / drive whilst preserving their folder structure then use another xcopy command to copy them into place on the new computer.

Denis

            When I try to open one of these file-Shortcuts in Notepad I get "Element not found". 

I should have mentioned that if we suspect a permissions problem you may need to do that as an administrator, e.g. elevate the Notepad window first and then try to open the file (using the Notepad window's File, Open command).  Another method would be to use PowerShell (Administrator Windows PowerShell) and there use its  Get-Content  cmdlet  on the file  (alias GC).   You can pipe that to clip.exe and then Paste the result into another app where you can browse the result (e.g. Notepad).

Sample syntax if you were at the proper directory level for a problem .lnk file would be

GC  broken.lnk  |  clip.exe

and then in Notepad you could just do  Ctrl-v  to see if there was anything readable.  It would probably be mostly doublebyte binary stuff, so instead of "readable" perhaps a better term would be "recognizable".

 

Good luck

Robert
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If I go to the old computer, take a working link, and copy it across the network onto my new computer - then go to the new computer and look at properties, it is blank. And I get "Windows can't find the target" when I right click and select Open File Location. This happens even though I have File Explorer open in another window to the old computer.