Does anyone know what problem I'm having?

[Nightingale]

I'm new, sorry, so I have no idea where to post this.

To make this short, whenever I try to open a file, it asks me what to open the program with. Now this has me stunned.

Of course I can choose "7-Zip" to open a .zip file, but what am I to choose if it comes to a .exe file? I can't possibly open a .exe file with Notepad, right?. And it IS pretty annoying having to choose.

It usually opens whatever file with an easy double-click, I have no idea how this happened.

[Kando]

Not sure what you would use to open the .exe but if you right click on something and select "open with" and then click on "choose program" you get a list of what programs Windows has. At the bottom of that window is a checkbox, make sure to check that if you will be opening the file all the time with the selected program.

[Spoiler]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000126.htm

[truenorth]

Nightingale, Welcome to the CH forums. Are we to understand that this is a new occurrence and that you have been able before now to open the file extensions that you now cannot? Also you have tossed out a couple of file extensions but are they only being used as examples and are not the actual file extensions that are creating the problem? For instance is it actually the .exe extension that you can no longer open? Are there others?What are the others that you are aware of? The usual reason for the failure of the file extension to be accessible is the absence on the computer of an associated program that will open it. This would be the case for instance if you received as an attachment an e-mail that was in the "powerpoint" file format but you did not have the powerpoint software on your computer.I must caution you NEVER select the "always open with this program " option if you are experimenting with what might open it from your on-board programs. That is because your computer has basically already told you it does NOT have a program that recognizes the file and therefore it is most likely whatever you chose won't open it. But worse is that if you select a program with that box checked it will ALWAYS try to open that file extension with that program causing no end of grief. truenorth