Windows 10: Some shortcuts not working on new computer

I have a number of shortcuts located on OneDrive that point to folders on a Sharepoint site. I just got a new computer last week, and on this new computer half of them no longer work. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been like this from the beginning just started today or yesterday because I use them every day and it's pretty evident since the icons have changed. However, I can't recall using a shortcut on this computer that now doesn't work.


In the shortcut properties, the target is greyed out and if I try to open the file location the popup states that "Windows can't find the target." I do have a different name on the new computer, "Mark" instead of "Mark V," so if it was all of them it wouldn't be terribly surprising, but in the ones that work the path is correct despite the switch in computer name. All of the shortcuts still work on the old computer through the same OneDrive folder despite it having a different computer name.


There is nothing that I can tell that differentiates the ones that work vs the ones that don't - many of them are pointing to folders in the same directory, and I'm just using them so I can quickly access what is relevant to me.


Is there an easy answer to this or do I just need to rebuild all my shortcuts?

:)

 

Shortcuts don't work on new computer

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

 

Shortcuts don't work on new computer

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

 

Shortcuts don't work on new computer

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.