Why does all my files and folders show as LNK file? (Virus?!)

[CycloneTutorials]

SOLUTION : http://malwaretips.com/Thread-How-to-fix-LNK-file-association-error
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Yesterday night I was in my friends house and he seriously needed help. Hope you genius people help him.

All his folders, file and shortcuts show as LNK file in Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
I tried scanning his PC with avast!, MalwareBytes, Hitman Pro 3.5 and SAS, but the result was the same.

How did it come up?
My friend was chatting with his uncle in Skype, he asked him to download 3 pictures, the pictures where names as LNK file, my friend opened the file and after that all his programs, files and shortcut was defaulted to (file name).LNK. He wasted $35 to renew his windows, and he doesn't wants to format either.

Hope you reply ASAP.

- CycloneTutorials

 

[Deleted member 178]

Try a system restore.

 

[Dejan]

They're all shortcuts to the original files located somewhere else, so they'll have that extension (hence a "link").

 

[Ramblin]

How did it come up?
My friend was chatting with his uncle in Skype, he asked him to download 3 pictures, the pictures where names as LNK file, my friend opened the file and after that all his programs, files and shortcut was defaulted to (file name).LNK. He wasted $35 to renew his windows, and he doesn't wants to format either.

Hope you reply ASAP.

- CycloneTutorials

LNK. files can become infected and should be scanned or run sandboxed if you
receive a file with that extension. My quote from your post perfectly describes
how people get infected with this kind of malware.

The problem can also be that your friend, something he did, changed which
program opens what file. You can try changing that manually or try SR.

Personally, to me,smells like an infected computer. This could have been avoided
completely if your friend had been running under the protection of Sandboxie or
some other sandbox.

Bo

 

[iPanik]

To me it looks like a file associations problem, which makes it a registry problem.
With the link below you can restore the default registry keys for the file associations.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

You can try that, if you still have problems after that you should try a system restore.

 

[CycloneTutorials]

Are you guys saying the PC is highly infected? And needs to be formatted? Does anyone knows how to remove this? Can anyone tell me briefly? Thank You.

 

[iPanik]

Maybe it has been infected but Avast, MBAM, SAS and Hitman Pro shouldn't give clean results if there is something.
You can run a bootable scanner just to make sure.

 

[Valentin N]

See if Comodo Cleaning essential finds something, try a clean with Kaskpersky bootable cd.

 

[Ramblin]

Have you done a System restore to see what happens or tried fixing the
file associations by going to Properties>Opens with.

If that does not take care of the situation, then the PC might be infected.

Bo

 

[LoftedAphid86]

I would recommend that you boot into an Ubuntu Live CD to see if they still display as links.
If they do, then what do they point to?
Software Links:

• Ubuntu Live CD.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Look like the downloaded pictures is a batch file that add a LNK extension to all files, anyway it was a bad move to open a picture with a LNK extension.

 

[jamescv7]

Do you scan with Dr.Web Cureit? Try it to see if founds something.

Seems those LNK are broken and needs to be repair and to found the missing shortcut files. If you click the LNK its suppose to show what file will be open,

 

[amazingAG]

No need to format or try any other hard methods.

Simple Click here. I am sure it will surely help.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Look like there is a Windows LNK vulnerability (kb2286198) that may be fix with Hitman Pro.

 

[malbky]

Just right click and select open. If it opens then file association prob. If it asks which program to use point it to the correct program like ms paint. Pls post your findings.

 

[eXPerience]

Can you try downloading for example a .doc file or .mp4 or whatever to the desktop. Reboot or something and see if it changes to lnk.

eXp

 

[Exorcizm]

You could try go (Start --> Default Programs --> Set Your Default Programs) and set the proper permissive rights to each program in there, and to be more thorough with what extensions are used for what, you could also try the (Start --> Default Programs --> Associate A File Type Or Protocol With A Program) to set individual program rights

Hope this helps

- Josh

 

[Deleted member 178]

maybe this could help: http://malwaretips.com/Thread-How-to-fix-file-disassociation-on-Win7-Vista