VISTA > Fixing a broken EXE association

[Guest]

<Sorry for the cross post>

So i was opening up an exe from a download manager and it asked the standard
"open with" question - i was so busy clicking around and getting to
understand vista that i chose INTERNET EXPLORER by accident.

Now i cannot open up any EXE files as it just opens IE over and over again.
How do i restore the "application" default back to the EXE file, it is not
listed under the file types and associations tab in Control Panel.

I cannot even get into some of the control panel items as it launches an exe
which of course opens IE which of course reopens the file which of course
opens IE > get the picture

This machine is now rendered useless until i can find a fix (can only find
registry fixes for XP online)

Thoughts.

 

[Scott]

<Sorry for the cross post>

So i was opening up an exe from a download manager and it asked the standard
"open with" question - i was so busy clicking around and getting to
understand vista that i chose INTERNET EXPLORER by accident.

You would think after all this time and money that Microsoft would
have dumped this stupid file extension crap.

No other OS that I know of relies on file extensions for file
association.

 

[john]

OK, this is even better, trying to install Quickbooks from an .exe
file and somehow clicked adobe 7 reader as default program to open
all .exe files, now all .exe files try to open with Adobe 7 reader.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

John

The following procedure will reset the association for .EXE files to the
Vista default.

Copy the text between the lines. (Don't copy the lines)
Open Notepad and paste the text.
Save the file to the Desktop as: exefile.reg
Close Notepad.
Go to the Desktop, right click the file and select Merge.
Confirm the registry merge.

-----------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@="exefile" "Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

 

[Richard Urban]

Did you buy the Vista compatible version of QuickBooks?

Intuit has admitted that "they" have a problem with Vista because of the way
"they" have been writing their programs for the past 6, or more, years. And
no, they aren't going to be offering a free upgrade.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

Here is another solution that might help:
http://jtbworld.blogspot.com/2007/03/have-you-lost-your-exe-file-extension.html