...file does not have a program associated with it...

[davis.157]

I've been encountering the message cited in the Subject header on a
particular system (WinXP Pro SP2) for
several months, now. I believe it was caused by remediation of a
virus infection. In general, on a properly
configured system, if you Shift+Right-click, you can select "Open
with..." on an otherwise unassociated file and
choose an appropriate program when you encounter the cited error
message. I'll use a particular example with
which I'm having trouble, the CONFIG.SYS file. On a properly
configured system, by merely right-clicking on this
file in Windows Explorer, you get an "Open With..." option. You can
then follow through with this process to open
the CONFIG.SYS file with a particular program. On my troublesome PC,
when I choose "Open With...", I encounter
the cited error message, so I'm stuck. In general, I don't want to
really associate a given program to .SYS files, I
just want the default behavior allowing me to choose a program. Any
ideas?

Thanks

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

WinXp uses Config.nt and not Config.sys

What is it you are trying to do with the Config file? Do you have some dos-based programs? games?
If you absolutely have to, you may use NOTEPAD to view contents of Config.nt

 

[Michael T. Davis]

WinXp uses Config.nt and not Config.sys

What is it you are trying to do with the Config file? Do you have some dos-based programs? games?
If you absolutely have to, you may use NOTEPAD to view contents of

Config.nt

(...Posting from a different account.)

I only used CONFIG.SYS as an example of the behavior I'm seeing and
what I'd like to fix. In general, I should be able to choose Open or "Open
With..." for a file that is unassociated, and choose a program, but that
process seems to be short-circuited, and all I get is the cited error message.

Regards,
Mike