I can't open many .exe files!

[Baka Gaijin]

For some reason I can't run .exe files the way they should. This is what happened:

I tried opening a downloaded file, and it asked a program to be opened with. I thought I'd try opening it in Adobe Photoshop. As I thought it failed, and I closed the program. However, now all .exe files tried opening in Photoshop when running them! And rebooting my computer didn't work either!

I noticed uninstalling Photoshop did the job. Everything was functioning properly again. However, I still wanted to use Photoshop so I re-installed it, and the old problem reappeared. Installing it in another folder didn't work either. Then I got the idea of opening the first file that caused the problem in a light weight program I was planning on removing anyway, and then uninstall that.

In a way it worked, because .exe files don't open in any program anymore, but now all .exe files open in an "open with" screen. I also noticed that the box that says "always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is 'gray', and it can't be checked.

Does anyone know this bizarre problem and how to fix it? Do you know an other way to fix it that by formatting my hard disk and reinstalling Vista?

Thanks in advance

[PaulB]

Check out this article. It will show you how to solve the problem.

http://www.winhelponline.com/article...ows-Vista.html

[Baka Gaijin]

Thank you very much! :-)

Though the reg file in the link didn't work, I googled and found this one:
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...plication.html