exe files. please help

[martinbliss]

Hi there, i am having some major problems with my toshiba notebook.
everytime i try to open any program it brings up the 'open with' box
and asks me which program i would like to open it with.
usually this would not be a problem as i would just choose the right
program and put a tick in the ''always use the selected program to open
this kind of file'' box but this option is not highlighted so am unable
to put tick in the box.

i have looked at the microsoft website for help and believe it is to do
with .exe files that i cant open and is something to do with the
registry editor. as i am not too clever with computers i dont want to
edit any if the registry information without taking advice from someone
that knows what they are talking about.

i cant even open any of the control panel at the moment either, when i
try to open any of the contol panel subjects it brings up a box saying
'c:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe application not found'

i have tried to do a system restore but even this i cant open!! i have
also gone into setup and chosen 'choose last known good configuration'
but that doesnt work.

any help or advice would be great

 

[Linda B]

I'm not sure if any of this will apply to you, but I found these:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311446

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310585

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555067

The registry hack in the third one sounds like it might be up your alley.
The first two make reference to viruses causing this kind of problem -- have
you run virus/malware sweeps on your machine?

HTH.

--LB