How to repair a broken .EXE file association

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After (hopefully) scrubbing viruses out of a Windows 7 installation (after deciding not to simply run over the laptop repeatedly with my car), I've got everything almost back to normal. The only lingering issue I have is that for my non-admin users, the ".exe" file extension doesn't work. That is, clicking on the various desktop application links results in a "How do you want to open this?" dialog.

I've been through the alleged registry fixing from "winhelponline" and that had absolutely no effect. I've tried running "assoc" for the affected users, but it reports the .exe association to be "exefile" even though it persistently does not work.

Right-clicking on a desktop icon and then choosing "start" does successfully open an application, but that's clearly a terrible situation.

For my admin user, things seem to work fine.

What do I need to do to get things working?

Pointy

Posted 2011-11-30T01:07:02.833

Reputation: 763

Question was closed 2017-01-20T16:24:00.417

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I'm voting to close this question as a dupe of this other question because the other question has better answers, even though this one was posted earlier. This dupe network is being discussed on Meta.

– Ben N – 2016-01-25T16:56:05.697

I assume that you restarted after making regisry changes? – soandos – 2011-11-30T01:11:52.533

1Yes, it being Windows I've restarted about 800 times :-) – Pointy – 2011-11-30T01:28:19.397

Answers

6

Open Notepad and save a text file (using a .reg extension) with the following content:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

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

Double click the file then reboot.

DISCLAIMER: Use at your OWN risk! There is no guarantee that this will work!

itdoesntwork

Posted 2011-11-30T01:07:02.833

Reputation: 320

1I've done exactly this. It had absolutely no effect. (edit at least I think that's what one of the random .bat files that purported to fix it did. I can try it however. Can you tell me what that would look like from within regedit?) – Pointy – 2011-11-30T01:38:59.973

Also, what's the explanation for things working fine for my admin user, but not for non-admins? – Pointy – 2011-11-30T01:40:43.120

When viewing the registry, under the path given, you would see a text value of: "%1" %* – Myrddin Emrys – 2011-11-30T01:45:59.537

4Well, it has to be a .reg file, not a bat file. Was it a reg file you ran? And as for admins, the [virus] thing might have edited your registry in only HKEY_LOCAL_USER section. If you use HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, then the changes are global. – itdoesntwork – 2011-11-30T01:48:14.577

OK I probably tried a .reg file. I'll definitely try this however. I can't at the moment because my kid is currently using it via the Linux partition :-) – Pointy – 2011-11-30T02:05:55.733

Asked: 2011-11-30T01:07:02.833

Viewed: 13 158 times

Active: 2015-05-27T11:31:54.040