Broken File Associations

[WJB]

Hi,

A friend of mine has a weird problem, possibly caused by a virus. None of
his executables will run, not even Windows Explorer or IE. Instead he keeps
getting the message:

"The file does not have a program associated with it for performing this
action. Create an Association in the Set Associations control panel."

However, unlike a document, it's not clear to me that any association can be
created for an exe file.

Any idea how this can be resolved short of reformatting the hard drive and
re-installing Windows and all installed programs?

The computer is running Windows Vista Business SP1.

 

[Jane C]

Hi,

A friend of mine has a weird problem, possibly caused by a virus. None of
his executables will run, not even Windows Explorer or IE. Instead he
keeps
getting the message:

"The file does not have a program associated with it for performing this
action. Create an Association in the Set Associations control panel."

However, unlike a document, it's not clear to me that any association can
be
created for an exe file.

Any idea how this can be resolved short of reformatting the hard drive and
re-installing Windows and all installed programs?

The computer is running Windows Vista Business SP1.

See this fix from MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:

http://www.winhelponline.com/articl...-associating-it-with-another-application.html

 

[WJB]

Thank you to all who replied. The fix worked like a charm.