Vista desktop shortcuts stop working

My parents have been having a problem with their computer for a while now where all of their desktop shortcuts suddenly stop working. If they double click any of them, absolutely nothing happens. Rebooting the computer fixes the problem, until the next time it happens. I've tried finding info about this here and a Google search, but not had much luck. Anyone seen this before and know how to fix it? Is it likely a virus?

They're running Windows Vista (not sure which version) and are not too computer savy. I'm able to log into their system remotely with the free version of LogMeIn, so I do have some access to try and fix it. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Chris

 

try doing a virus scan to rule that out. use whatever they are running, or if not, you can try super antispy
http://majorgeeks.com/SUPERAntiSpyware_d5116.html

If all is well, then you can try to run the command sfc /scannow from a command prompt (make sure you start the command prompt window as an administrator)

if you do find a virus problem, then you'll need to have them run through these steps:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407