weird problem: XP install where most shortcuts are broken

[urlwolf]

I used firstdefense to go back to a (I thought) clean install of XP and I found a weird problem: most shortcuts are broken. At least, the ones I 'made' manually.

I found this by using FARR (and some other launchers). They use shortcuts a lot. Well, most of the time, they launch nothing. Sometimes you get an error message, but in the case of FARR you get nothing.

I think FARR fails to lauch things that are simple exes too (i.e., no shortcuts).

This is the first time I do anything with Firstdefense; I'm pretty sure this is not how it's intended to work.
Any ideas?

Thanks