So I downloaded a small game, nothing weird there, and my antivirus (Avast Free) quarantines the installer like it does in a lot of unpacked games i download. So I just take it out of quarantine like normal, and try to start it. I notice that it asks me what program to start it in. Now, I'm sure it was an .exe because I checked it. It was odd because .exe-files don't even have an option to change what program they are launched in, but I played along.
So I decided to try launching it in notepad to see if it even had anything in it. Looked like the normal scrambled text you usually find inside installers or images. So I just quit the notepad and tried to launch it again. It launched in Notepad. I tried a few more times before I became too frustrated to keep going, and abandoned it for a while and continued browsing FP.
After a while (hour or so), I was going to start uTorrent and noticed that almost all of the icons in my start menu were blank. uTorrent started in Notepad. So did all other programs.
I restarted my computer, and at startup I got a dozen or so notepads opening, all named the programs that I had set to start with the computer. So I can't start any programs at all because they open in Notepad. Hamachi was the only one that started.
The only reason I got a browser open is because I went to Windows Help and opened an online version of an article and it opened my browser for me. I tried doing a system restore but, suprise suprise, it tells me an error about how it's unable to open (obviously the same reason everything else has). I'm suprised I even got Help open.
The browser alone is enough to keep me occupied for days if nobody comes up with anything, it's not like I'm going to run out of pointless flash games or anything.
[editline]18th March 2011[/editline]
Oh god, I just noticed I can't open the task manager either
[editline]18th March 2011[/editline]
The problem is probably that I left the box "always launch this type of files in this program" ticked when I started the quarantined installer in Notepad, so the problem is just figuring out how to get that back. I checked the default programs list but .exe isn't even in there so that's out of question.
But I've been awake for 16 hours so sorry if something doesn't make any sense.
[editline]18th March 2011[/editline]
[b]TL;DR:[/b] Fucked up and now all programs start in Notepad.
Create a new .reg file and throw this in it
[code]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice][/code]
Right click it and press merge
[editline]18th March 2011[/editline]
If you cant get regedit open, copy it and rename the copy to regedit.com
[QUOTE=Tobba;28665266]Create a new .reg file and throw this in it
[code]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\UserChoice][/code]
Right click it and press merge
[editline]18th March 2011[/editline]
If you cant get regedit open, copy it and rename the copy to regedit.com[/QUOTE]
Worked, thanks
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