FF Desktop shortcuts no longer work

Am on win10 -- FF 118.0.2 A strange thing has just occurred in the past two days -- Firefox will no longer drag and drop URLs to form a shortcut on the desktop; I get only the international "can't do that" symbol, the circle with a slash, as I drag. When I make a shortcut within firefox, then copy it and paste to the desktop, instead of the FF icon, I get the blank sheet, but when I look at the file with Notebook, it shows all the expected content: ++ clip shortcut content ++ [InternetShortcut] URL=https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidias-forecast-dampens-ai-enthusiasm-other-tech-stocks-2024-08-28/ IDList= HotKey=0 IconFile=C:\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\shortcutCache\B1_LfDoEyJumsj81b4UeTw==.ico IconIndex=0 ++ end clip=== Items between < > redacted ++ BUT! the shortcut doesn't work. no response, whatever, when clicked on. Same deal with shortcuts that once did work; they are now inactive. However, when dragged onto FF or Chrome, they magically link up as they ought to. I've googled for answers, but found nothing worthwhile. One suggestion was to shift the default browser to something else. I chose Google Chrome. Did no good. The shortcuts remained inactive. I could drag and drop from Chrome to the desktop but the shortcuts were still of a white sheet and inactive. So, I'm suspecting something in Windows needs to be reset, but what? Can't find anything about where and how url shortcuts are treated in the registry. It's an annoyance. Any help greatly appreciated.