Problems with my Dell Inspion with Windows Vista.

[aleeuh]

Two months ago, my computer was so full of viruses that it had asked me when
I was restarting it if I wanted to restore it back to before I was having all
of the problems that I was having with it. After I agreed to restoring it,
everything worked fine. Two weeks ago, my computer started making me find the
files of things I wanted to open before I opened them, example, if I wanted
to open Firefox, an Open With pop up would open and would make me go into
files and open it manually. But for some reason, it will not open programs
period. How can I fix this without completely re-formatting my computer?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Two months ago, my computer was so full of viruses that it had
asked me when I was restarting it if I wanted to restore it back to
before I was having all of the problems that I was having with it.
After I agreed to restoring it, everything worked fine. Two weeks
ago, my computer started making me find the files of things I
wanted to open before I opened them, example, if I wanted to open
Firefox, an Open With pop up would open and would make me go into
files and open it manually. But for some reason, it will not open
programs period. How can I fix this without completely
re-formatting my computer?

*You* cannot.

And any competent technician, after hearing what you just posted here, would
surely recommend a full backup and clean installation followed immediately
by the installation of reliable AntiVirus software and AntiMalware software
and setting your firewall exceptions to "No Exceptions". Automatic updates
on and would give you a user-level account for everyday use.

Microsoft's System Restore is not a backup plan or way to get rid of a
virus - it only deals with the important system files. Your computer may
have seemed to have 'worked fine' - but unless you mis-spoke and the system
restore you speak of was not from Microsoft but some other imaging utility
that overwrote everything - it was probably far from clean.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.