Software problems

BCB

Hoping some of you folks may be of some assistance, im running Vista Home Premium on a Dell Laptop, basically 2 nights ago i deleted some files by accident, and now when i go to open a few programs for example windows media player, real player or winrar,etc,etc it's asking me what program i wish to use to open these files with, i tried to do a system restore but when i click on that nothing happens, with media player for example i chose the same program to open that with but im unable to check the box which says always choose this way,etc, ive searched online for some fixes but haven't come up with anything.

It looks as if ive deleted some file extensions, but how can i get it to work the way it was a few days ago, if i couldn've done system restore that would've been ok but it's not letting me, also some of the icons on my desktop are just now like just plain instead of the usual ones that were there, funnnily enough my Internet browser is ok and that works on it's just a number of programs and applications, also i deleted microsoft works as well and id like to get that back, i cant find the Vista installation disc either.

Sorry it's a long one hoping someone can offer some assistance here.

Thanks

yoyo

http://filext.com/faq/broken_exe_association.php

Any help?

Nick

Sherifu

1) Open Windows Explorer
2) Right click on a file with the extension in question
3) Go to 'Open with...'
4) As a selection you will see 'Set default program', select this.
5) You are now in an association dialog where you can pick a program, browse to a program of your choice, along with other options.

BCB

Unfortunately not folks, windows explorer wont even open and that website is a bit technical for me,.any other ideas

yoyo

I include the registry file that guide reccomends you executed (I saved it to be openable for you), download this, open it, when asked do you want to allow registry entires to be added click yes, it should then say a success message, then try open a exe again , if that doesnt work try rebooting and try again...

Nick

BCB

yoyo wrote: »

I include the registry file that guide reccomends you executed (I saved it to be openable for you), download this, open it, when asked do you want to allow registry entires to be added click yes, it should then say a success message, then try open a exe again , if that doesnt work try rebooting and try again...

Nick

I saved this as save page as

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):

i then clicked on it and it asked me to allow registries to be entered and i clicked yes, i rebooted and then clicked on avast anti virus and it again asked me what program i wanted to open the file with so i choose avast and it worked, but it wont work with windows media player or real,player,etc have i gone wrong somewhere or are there more problems?

Cheers for the assistance BTW,

yoyo

Not sure so man, doesnt seem to be a likely extension issiue, have you virus scanned?

Nick

BCB

yoyo wrote: »

Not sure so man, doesnt seem to be a likely extension issiue, have you virus scanned?

Nick

not a virus as i scanned twice with 2 different anti-virus, fcuk knows what this is.

ressem

If you can find the CD then insert it and

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
sfc /scannow
The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

Conar

Also try the startup repair from CD, see if it spots errors and fixes them, if not try the system restore from there too.
I haven't had to do a system restore in Vista but in XP it often was tempermental unless you ran it from safe mode.

Good guid for startup repair here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html

BCB

Unfortunately i cannot find the Vista DVD that came with the laptop anywhere, i suppose ill just have to go to a PC repair shop as i cannot find any other solution, any idea of the cost surely not that much?

Conar

Have you tried a restore from within safe mode?
As soon as the PC finishes post start tapping F8.
You should get an advanced boot menu with safe mode as on of the options.
Log on in safe mode and try a system restore.

As I say I haven't had to restore yet in vista but in XP I found system restores would often fail unless run from safe mode.


Where did you buy the PC?
You should have been provided with the software.

If it is a Dell or similar main stream brand then perhaps you have a restore partition. If you can give me the make and model I could probably tell you.

Computer repair place will probably cost at least 100 for a reinstall but I could be wrong.
For that price you could just buy a new OEM copy of Vista on DABS or Komplett.

I would offer to repair it for your but I have a lot on at the moment so I wouldn't have time but I'm sure its repairable.

One final thought, from your description you appear to say that you have deleted essential files.
If you download the release candidate of Vista SP1 you might get lucky and it may have updated versions which it will install and then you'll be sorted.
Download it from here and try it.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2FA54665-7716-47D9-B9B7-5CFDF71198CB&displaylang=en

Its the RC so whenever the full version is released you'll have to remove it and reinstall the full release but its worth a try.

Good luck.

Conar

Just noticed you mentioned it was a laptop.
Even more likely to have a restore partition.
Let me know the model.
Could be easir to fix than you think.

BCB

It's a Dell Inspiron 1501.

Basically what a mate has done is created a new user profile and i tried a system restore from that but it's not working,so basically ill just use the new profile instead, i have copied my documents onto a DVD disc and pasted them into my documents, however my bookmarks have are still in the old user profile ,how can i get the bookmarks from my old user profile onto my new profile does anyone know?

I tried copying them onto a disc but that's not working,anyone any other ideas?