Bizare error - Help!

[rgratto2]

My friend's computer is having a very strange issue. I have not seen it myself thus far, but the symptoms have been explained to me as such:

Whenever she tries to open anything EXCEPT internet explorer, it gives the following error: "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Association panel"

Any ideas?


Edit: Dang, its spelled bizarre.

 

[Deleted member 133315]

If she can, tell her to restore her computer to an earlier time by using windows xp system restore ( assuming she uses XP, if its vista then I am not sure but it should have similar options ), because if that error happens with every program then I would presume that her OS is in a mess, she could click on the "open with" option when using right mouse button and select the programme manually to open whatever file, but doing that for everything isnt a good idea, system restore would be much better, failing that reinstall the OS or use the recovery console.

1. try system restore.
2. try using "open with" using the right mouse button.
3. recovery console.
4. reinstall windows.

thats the options I would use.

 

[rgratto2]

Awesome, thanks for the response. Hopefully I'll get to take a look at it tomorrow and see what this mess is. Id say the best options are System Restore then a Repair Install. I'll post back after hopefully finding a nice solution.

 

[rgratto2]

As far as the option concerning the right-click and Open With... method, how would that even work for executables? I don't quite understand how .exes dont work... they just... run?

Additionally, a repair install does Not prompt for the CD-key, right?

Edit: Arg, She has Vista Home Premium and I only have Vista Business, so I have no disk to do the repair install.

 

[digital_exhaust]

Unless I'm mistaken, your Business disc should work fine for a repair. All Vista install disc's contain all the Vista variants, it's the key that determines what version is installed.