How do i set the default program to open exe files back after i changed it accidentally to notepad ??

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alaahp1801

Honorable
Nov 4, 2013
2
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10,510
I accidentally changed the default program to open exe files to notepad ..!!!
then every thing is messed up...!! i can't even open an internet browser normally ..!!
i don't know where this EXE launcher exist on the computer to set it back the same way ..
 
Solution
Go to the link below and follow the instructions there (ie. download the .reg file they posted and right click on it afterwards and select merge ) -- This is a small file that will reset the default program used to open .exe files back to the original setting and should fix things for you !

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/restore-exe-file-asso-windows-7-vista-incorrectly-associated/
Go to the link below and follow the instructions there (ie. download the .reg file they posted and right click on it afterwards and select merge ) -- This is a small file that will reset the default program used to open .exe files back to the original setting and should fix things for you !

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/restore-exe-file-asso-windows-7-vista-incorrectly-associated/
 
Solution

Melshu

Reputable
Mar 12, 2014
1
0
4,510
Omg I'm so glad I found this, everywhere people talked about viruses and I knew it was just me that had accidentally setted internet explorer to open every exe file. Imagine google chrome being opened by internet explorer... I was going nuts. Thank you very much!
 

hickerso

Honorable
Jun 3, 2012
3
0
10,510
Thank you - thank you - thank you! This worked for me, as well. I was installing YAWCAM and it asked me to install Java (newly built machine), so I did, then when I installed Yawcam again, when it should've started the program, instead it asked which program I wanted to use to open this type of file. It seemed strange, but I thought maybe it was asking me which software I wanted to associate the movies from the camera to play through, so I selected media player. POOF - all my exe files now try to open through media player AND all of the icons change to the media icon! Ugh!

I'm sure hoping I can just do a system restore rather than replacing them individually, but if not, its yet another time I'm grateful for being COMPLETELY ANAL retentive about keeping multiple clones of my system on disconnected drives. If you have any old drives (and if not, but one on ebay or something), and a hotswap bay, you'll never regret keeping period reclones... but I guess most of you already know this. Use free Macrium Reflect and you won't even have to shut down as it just does it in the background while you're doing other things.
Thanks again to the Tom's community for great people taking the time to help others find near lifesaving solutions. Its truly been a time saver, if not a life saver, for me!
 

ekofly

Reputable
Apr 10, 2015
1
0
4,510


An easy way to restore your settings is to download and run Microsoft fix.
Here's a link to that web site https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/950505#FixItForMeAlways
 

snatr

Reputable
Jun 15, 2015
1
0
4,510
In response to ekofly. That is truly the link that I ended up using to repair my machine running windows seven. The problem is I had to follow the instructions instead because the fix is for Vista. Kinda tricky though. One tip I have for people is that when it comes time to run the command prompt, the way around the exe thing is to hold shift and right click the desktop. That let me run the command prompt finally. And by the way, the download at the beginning of thread didn't look legit to me at all.
 
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