(Not so much) desperate for computer help

[sovereignstar]

I bet you didn't know you could do this. Here's the situation:

1) I downloaded a file that didn't have an extension
2) I guessed that is was an exe file so I gave it the exe extension
3) I was wrong, so I tried to give it a rar extension - thing is, once you give something an exe extension it becomes "built in" and you can't change it
4) The worst thing I did was right-clicked and chose to open this now-exe with WinRar

Now every exe tries to open with WinRar and brings up and error message saying there is something wrong with the archive. Things I've tried with to no avail:

1) System restore to a good checkpoint from yesterday
2) Safe mode boot

Neither worked and I can't do anything. I can't even uninstall WinRar, which would probably work since it'd cause windows to look for a new program to open executables. Help.. please.

[sovereignstar]

Oh, I'm on my Mac laptop since I can't even open up a browser on the desktop.

[stevew]

control panel /folder options/file types in xp
I dont know what you would do with the EXE extension, i believe you could change it or delete it, not sure then.

[sovereignstar]

Yeah, I should've listed that as things I did. I couldn't even find executable files listed under the folder options thing.

[sovereignstar]

Now this isn't exactly the time to be dissing Windows, but does anyone think that this is something that shouldn't even be possible to do?

[sovereignstar]

Okay, I can create an EXE action, but what would I open it with?

[AgustusM]

From Explorer - Tools - Folder Options - then uncheck this box.

once you do that full file names will show up and you can rename .exe files

[AgustusM]

never mind - I actually re-read the ENTIRE problem instead of jumping to conclusions (yes, it is a problem) this solves what i thought your problem was not what it actually is.

Originally Posted by AgustusM

From Explorer - Tools - Folder Options - then uncheck this box.

once you do that full file names will show up and you can rename .exe files

[AgustusM]

this looks like it might work for the actual problem

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/exefile.htm

[Groundhog]

Wow, that's a really nasty problem. Don't have the answer, and since I'm on my locked-down work PC I can't fool around with it an try solve it for you... hopefully someone else here knows.

[sovereignstar]

Okay, not sure what I did exactly, but something in the folder options reset executables to their normal function. Wonder if I would've been able to edit the registry - probably not. Thanks for the responses though, guys. I'm all fixed.

[Swaggs]

FOFC is smart.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by AgustusM

never mind - I actually re-read the ENTIRE problem instead of jumping to conclusions (yes, it is a problem) this solves what i thought your problem was not what it actually is.

Well, I've unchecked that box so as to never run into this problem again.

[Airhog]

the .exe function is pretty much built in. you cannot change that file type under xp. However, when you did what you did, it probably created a new one. I would imagine if you would have deleted that from your list of file types it would have started working again.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Airhog

the .exe function is pretty much built in. you cannot change that file type under xp. However, when you did what you did, it probably created a new one. I would imagine if you would have deleted that from your list of file types it would have started working again.

Well, like I mentioned, there wasn't an exe file type listed. At least not until I created one.