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I don’t want to assume it’s a virus so did you change any settings before the files changed to .Ink?

every thing in your computer is media player yes?

As far as I know, files that ends with the extension .lnk are shortcut files.

kriss37 wrote:
@ xeophatic It might be cause the file i tried to open with Windows Media Player was a .lnk file originally.

Look the problem is that you can’t open your music files, cause they’re .lnk - from what I understood (my English isn’t the best…) .
So I suggest maybe trying to locate where are the original files located.
It simply can be done by right clicking on the icon, selecting “Open file location”. If you don’t have that option so, again, Right clicking on the icon > Properties > Open File Location button and it will open the original location of the file.

If you need more help in the same subject, you can contact me via Email ( i> small>(email removed) /small> /i>). Hope it helped you.

By the way… the chrome isn’t a .lnk file, it’s only the shortcut you have for it. Actually the .lnk file leads into the original one.

seems that you have a registry problem

are you sure .Ink are shortcuts? they are supposed to be files associated with tablet PC’s.

try what xeophatic suggested

but sounds like a registry problem, you can download a program that might fix the registry

kriss37 wrote:
This is what happened.

I tried to open a file that Windows couldn’t identify. I clicked “Open With” and chose Windows Media Player. But i had the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” box checked, and that’s what changed all the files to the Windows Media Player ones. Now all i want to do is undo this. How?

if you want to open a file just click on (open with)again and then click on(choose default program)and fill the sentence that is writing(always use the selected program to open this kind of file).i think your problem will solve

click on start, type default programs, click set your default programs, choose windows media player from the list, click choose defaults for this program, uncheck appropriate boxes.

is your problem solved?

kriss37 wrote:

supergeek00 wrote:
click on start, type default programs, click set your default programs, choose windows media player from the list, click choose defaults for this program, uncheck appropriate boxes.

Seems like it should work, but it doesn’t. It didn’t show me the files at the choose defaults for this program, because they all might be .lnk files.

*Fairytale* wrote:
is your problem solved?

Nope, not yet. Getting close though.

do you live in the united states?if yes i will give you a phone number and you can ask your question

wait, you know .Ink should appear in the list don’t you? not the names of the files themselves

still could be bad registry values if that’s not the problem but I don’t know what else.

go to to this site and ask your question by sending an email to the computer problem solver.
http://www.cps.com/

hehehe!

Hasn’t anyone realised what a .lnk file is?

Its the file that is created when you make a shortcut! - All you have done OP is when you copied the files from wherever, you created shortcuts of all of them rather than copying/moving the files themselves!

Hopefully you still have where they WERE, because thats where they still are!

Am really rather hopeful on this is because as a .lnk is merely a pointer it has no info on the file itself… so if you’ve deleted the originals you have lost them and you had better go and find something to un-delete them :P

basically operating systems have a store of data that holds system settings and settings corresponding to all the applications you have installed such as windows media player called the registry. data in the registry is often modified by applications so there can be incorrect values. but you can usually restore registry values to their default but only by using a program because it’s so easy to mess your computer up.

ok, so can you play other audio files in windows media player?

SlightlyUnique wrote:
hehehe!

Hasn’t anyone realised what a .lnk file is?

Its the file that is created when you make a shortcut! - All you have done OP is when you copied the files from wherever, you created shortcuts of all of them rather than copying/moving the files themselves!

Hopefully you still have where they WERE, because thats where they still are!

Am really rather hopeful on this is because as a .lnk is merely a pointer it has no info on the file itself… so if you’ve deleted the originals you have lost them and you had better go and find something to un-delete them :P

hehe.do you i don’t know what’s lnk?

Oh - additionally if you want to look up more its .LNK rather than .INK as i think some people have been looking at

(Fairytale - here it is straight from wiki

File shortcuts (also known as Shell Links) were introduced in Windows 95[1]. Microsoft Windows uses .lnk as the filename extension for shortcuts to local files, and .URL for shortcuts to remote files, like web pages.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_shortcut)

Finally, just in case you aren’t sure - have a look at the file sizes of each of the .lnk - they should be /tiny/ compared to what you would expect for the file - mere bytes rather than megabytes

right click on each one, select open file location. that will take you to the file you want. hold the ctrl key down and drag each file beside the shortcut. then delete the shortcut. do this for each shortcut. then you will be able to play the files you want to play.

try it for one shortcut first.
does it work?

you mean restore them to the original files?

Simply put - you can’t. Its like trying to read an entire book when you only have the contents page :P

You need to go and find the actual files themselves, then copy them properly :)

*chuckles* - for how to transfer the files, see supergeeks post above! - there are faster ways but his will work nicely :)

unless there’s something up with your operating system you can right click a file, click create shortcut, then drag the shortcut to the place you want it, then double click on the shortcut and that should play the audio file.

is that anything you haven’t done already?

if that doesn’t work, you must have a virus or some odd system configuration that doesn’t allow normal shortcuts to be made.

well.. of course it does!

A shorcut is built into windows as a pointer only…

Any music player looks at the shortcut and goes “What the hell is this? Wheres the music?” - again, an example is you putting the CD case into the CD player and wondering why it doesn’t work.

You need to point windows media or whatever else you are using to play the music to the main files - not the shortcut.

Ah! - Unless i’ve got the wrong end of the stick! - in a earlier post someone said that you should “open with” - so now windows thinks that ANY shortcut should be open with’d that program.

I’ll tell you how to turn this off in a couple of hours when i’m on a Win 7 computer - can’t quite remember off the top of my head!

But in all you need to do is get to the place (its in control panel) where all file types are assigned and remove the .lnk from the list - that’ll fix that problem and get you back to normal

could be the problem. i’ll try and save you some time if you don’t know what to do. right click a shortcut. choose open with. click choose default program. uncheck always use the selected program to open this kind of file.

If you cannot access apps directly, chances are, it’s a virus or some third party intruded and tampered with your registry.
A couple things to try:

Enter safe mode and perform a system restore prior to your incident.

or

Download an alternative virus detection software and run it. Malwarebytes and Spybot are very effective and free to download online.

Good Luck!