Why is a shortcut not executed or started?

If double-clicking on a shortcut in SpeedCommander does not start the associated program, but instead prompts you to select a program to open this file type, this may be due to a common modification to the registry database. It does not matter whether this change was made manually or by a tweaking tool.

In this particular case, the problem is usually caused by the removal of the shortcut arrows. To solve the problem, you must first start the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

Then locate the following sections in the Registry Editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\lnkfile

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\piffile

If the string IsShortCut is missing in one of these two sections, this will lead to the behavior in SpeedCommander described above. If you restore the missing string, shortcuts will work again in SpeedCommander.

After this change, the shortcut arrow will be visible again. To hide it permanently and still be able to execute shortcuts in SpeedCommander, create a new string named 29 in the section

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

The value must be a path to an icon (e.g., C:\Icons\AnIcon.ico), which should preferably be transparent.