Windows Vista Cannot Launch any Programs: IE launches instead

Hello all,

It doesn't matter what program I click on, each one launches IE. Initially, it will ask if I want to run the .exe file but if I hit RUN, IE launches. I tried to go to msconfig but it does the same thing. In fact, most of the application icons now show as IE shortcuts. I am running Windows Vista, SP2. I'm running AVG free and it didn't pick up anything.

Thank you guys in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

-Chris

 

Go to this page and scroll down a little to the grid with links to various file association fixes.

Download the zip fix first...bottom left-hand corner of the grid. It's a reg file so once you have it saved to the hard drive, just right click it and in the menu that opens, left click Merge.

That will fix the zip file extension so you can then download the exe fix...second column, second one down from top...unzip it, right click the unzipped file and in the menu that opens, left click Merge.

 

I can't even get it to save to the computer. When I go to save as, it immediately pops up a box that says, "The webpage could not be saved ". I was going to copy it to notepad or wordpad and change the extension but I cant open those.

 

!!!UPDATE!!!

Okay, so I managed to open notepad by opening a txt file instead of opening the program. I successfully pasted the zip reg and saved the txt file on the desktop. Then I renamed the suffix to a .reg and merged it... with success! I then did the .exe and reset the computer. All of the apps are now accessible. Thank you so much.

However, I am now having an issue accessing the internet in normal mode. When I open IE, the program is lagging or giving me a black screen or freezing. However, it works fine in safe mode with networking. Could this be a virus or do I have more fixin to do.

 

Instead of left clicking on the links, right click and in the menu that opens, left click "Save target as." That should then let you save the file.

Left clicking it, as it turns out, opens it as a text file instead of starting the download.