opening .exe's in Notepad

I accidentally told Windows to open an .exe in Notepad, and because the
little checkbox that says "Open all files of this type with this program"
must have been marked, it's now opening all programs in Notepad and spitting
alphanumerical gibberish at me. I've tried getting into System Restore by
hitting F11 on restart of the computer, and doing a Non-destructive system
restore, but it doesnt work. It goes through it, but when it comes back up to
a Windows desktop, the first thing it does is open Oemrestore in Notepad

Try booting into safe mode (command line) and type

assoc .exe=exefile

and see if that fixes things up. If not, save the following (not including
the dash lines) into a file called exefix .reg file and merge it into the
registry by typing

regedit exefix.reg

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00
"TileInfo"="prop:FileDescription;Company;FileVersi on"
"InfoTip"="prop:FileDescription;Company;FileVersio n;Create;Size"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open]
"EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHan dlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHan dlers\PEAnalyser]
@="{09A63660-16F9-11d0-B1DF-004F56001CA7}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHan dlers\PifProps]
@="{86F19A00-42A0-1069-A2E9-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHan dlers\ShimLayer Property
Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"BryanV" <BryanV@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news3446BD7-1036-4F2E-97F6-0E40BCB06BFB@microsoft.com...
>I accidentally told Windows to open an .exe in Notepad, and because the
> little checkbox that says "Open all files of this type with this program"
> must have been marked, it's now opening all programs in Notepad and
> spitting
> alphanumerical gibberish at me. I've tried getting into System Restore by
> hitting F11 on restart of the computer, and doing a Non-destructive system
> restore, but it doesnt work. It goes through it, but when it comes back up
> to
> a Windows desktop, the first thing it does is open Oemrestore in Notepad

..EXE files always open with Notepad or any other application ?:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/exeasso.htm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com


"BryanV" <BryanV@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news3446BD7-1036-4F2E-97F6-0E40BCB06BFB@microsoft.com...
I accidentally told Windows to open an .exe in Notepad, and because the
little checkbox that says "Open all files of this type with this program"
must have been marked, it's now opening all programs in Notepad and spitting
alphanumerical gibberish at me. I've tried getting into System Restore by
hitting F11 on restart of the computer, and doing a Non-destructive system
restore, but it doesnt work. It goes through it, but when it comes back up
to
a Windows desktop, the first thing it does is open Oemrestore in Notepad