Windows Vista Constant "Open With" prompts

At the moment, whenever I try to open any programs (whether it's Firefox, msconfig, Photoshop, etc) it comes up with an "Open With" prompt. I have to browse through folders and find the exe file to open the program.

I'm not 100% sure, but I am pretty certain this is because I was playing with the startup programs the other day. I was trying to remove a few programs from startup. I cannot remember how I went about removing the programs (whether through msconfig or otherwise).

I originally thought I accidentally disabled (or more accurately, deleted) the programs, so I went and created another user account, but I found that the user account worked just fine. The programs that I thought I had "deleted" opened and worked just fine. There was also no "Open With" prompts.

Back to my account.... When I tried to access msconfig, I couldn't and I didn't know where the actual program was in the hundreds of folders and files. Would opening msconfig solve my problem? I also tried accessing my start up programs from the other account I created, but I could not view them. Windows repair didn't really do anything for me either.

How do I fix my problem?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Sounds like you've corrupted shortcut associations, since this isn't easy to do accidentally you may consider malware being the problem. However as you admit tinkering try a system restore to a point before you began messing around.

If you do think malware may be the problem then Please read this and post requested logs in the Malware and virus removal board.

NOTES:

When posting the logs ensure word wrap is switched off (in notepad Uncheck Format->Word Wrap) as this makes them difficult to read.

Be aware that only Malware analysts will advise and they are often busy. Your post will be taken on a first come first served basis but it may take a while before you receive a reply.

Include a link to this thread if you can.

 

Thank you for the reply! I'll go and post in the malware forum as well, because *I think* I may have been infected by something.

I tried Windows Restore, but that didn't really help me either...