hi i have done somethink on my pc and have some how managed to change the way i open my programs ie outlook express maccafee and acrobat reader when i click to open them it never gives me the option to just open it always says open with or send to i obviusly have changed somethin also the pictures off the programs have changed they all have the same windows picture on now thank you for your help.

If you right click the thing you want to open, it should give you the option to choose the program you wish to open it with.
Plus there should be a box for you to select, always open using this program.

yes i do right click it then hte box opens options open with,open, scan, send to, so i click open then nothink happens.

Hi Cathy

If you go to Start > Programes > and click on the program/s that wont start do thay start up ok that way. If so then delete the desktop icons as they are only short cuts and then by going to Start > Programes > right click on the program and click send to desktop as that will place a new shortcut on the desktop and then when you click on that you should be able to open the program normaly

Elaine

If you can, click on Start, Run, type in msconfig in the Run box. When the small window opens, click on Advanced near the lower right hand side of the window. Place a check mark in the box for "Enable Startup Menu". You will be prompted to restart. If you're ready, do so. (This Startup Menu can be removed by reversing these steps.)

If you can't do the above, when the machine is booting, just after the P.O.S.T. (Power On Self Test) screens finish and you see "Starting Windows 98", start tapping the Ctrl key. (You have to be quick.) This should bring up the MS boot menu. Choose Command Prompt Only.

When the boot completes, at the C:\> prompt, type in scanreg/restore. and hit the Enter key. Follow the prompts and pick a restore date which precedes the problem.

thank you for your reply but i think its somethink to do with programs changing from exe to link cant understand wht this has changed?

Your Windows file associations may need to be repaired. To do this:

Click Start, point to Find, and click Files or Folders.

In the Named box, type Shell.inf and then click Find Now.

Right-click the Shell.inf file, and click Install.

Wait about 1 minute (the time varies on different systems), and then click Start, Shutdown, Restart, and then click OK.


If the Shell.inf file is not found, click Start, Run, and then type the following:

rundll setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 c:\windows\inf\shell.inf

NOTE: Type the above line as one continuous line.

(If you installed Windows in a folder other than the Windows folder, adjust the command-line accordingly.)