The recently discovered .LNK vulnerability in Windows is apparently far more severe than originally reported. Research conducted by HD Moore, CSO of Rapid7 and Chief Architect of Metasploit, reveals that the flaw is also exploitable via the Web and via malformed Word doc files. Unfortunately, there are few options available to users until Microsoft releases a patch.
Currently, the two options that are available include disabling the rendering of shortcut icons altogether using the Microsoft FixIt tool or manually editing the registry. The second option is a free tool complements of Sophos. The Sophos Windows Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool intercepts shortcut files that contain the exploit and issues a warning.
Neither method is perfect but, if you're a Windows user, either is better than doing nothing.