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Windows 7 has lost all of its program association recognition.

I have an HP laptop running Windows 7 Professional that worked fine this morning and now this afternoon is giving me this error message for every application (Word, Excel, Firefox, Internet Explorer) I try to open.

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing the action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association with the Default Programs control panel".

I can not get to system restore to set the system to an earlier date.

Suggestions?

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Run5k

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Run5k

Once that is done, it would be a good idea to run system scans to ensure that this wasn't caused by malware. User your current antivirus application, and then run another scan with Malwarebytes.

Here is a great tutorial written by EE community member Younghv that explains the process in-depth:

Stop the Bleeding: First Aid for Malware

meade470

I would recommend this .exe file association fix. Download the file, then extract the .bat file and run it with elevated permissions (run as administrator):

.EXE Association Fix

This will resolve your issue. I would recommend a stable AV constantly running in the background in the future to prevent any other problems.

Run5k

Meade470, normally that would be a very good suggestion. Doug Knox has some terrific utilities! However, that particular fix is aimed at repairing the EXE file association on a Windows XP operating system. The registry updates required to repair a Windows 7 machine are a bit different, so it's probably better to utilize one specifically designed for the affected OS.

meade470

Thanks for the insight run5k, although I have personally used the .exe association fix on multiple Windows 7 Machines (either 32bit\62bit home premium\pro\ultimate) and thankfully it works. To the original author, I would recommend trying this first.

Alpha4043

ASKER

I restored the .exe in the registry and used the system restore to an earlier date. That seemed to do the trick. I then scanned the drive for malware and everything seems to working properly again.

Alpha4043

ASKER

My reply and points I thought were going to Run5k. It looks like I responded to the wrong comment. I fixed this the same day after the first response. My apologies.

Run5k

Meade470, I definitely appreciate your perspective, too. As I said before, I have used Doug Knox's utilities extensively. I was simply trying to emphasize that while a Window XP registry update might work on a Windows 7 operating system, it may not be ideal compared to one that was specifically created for the current OS. If you take a look at the two registry updates side-by-side, you will see that the one posted on the SevenForums web page is a bit more extensive.

Thanks for chiming in, though... it's always nice to joing forces with another set of experienced eyes!