This is a problem I ran into for the first time about a week ago. On a residents Windows 7 machine, all executable file suffixes (*.exe) turned into link suffixes(*.ink). This lead to them opening up with Internet Explorer download manager and asked if you would like to download link. This problem was probably brought on by the user accidentally clicking OK in a window that asked if you would like to change .exe associations to .ink.
After finally being able to open a web browser, I did a little research and found the fix to be either go and fix every executable individually, or a quick registry edit to fix all files at the same time. For the laymen who do not know, registry edits should always be a last resort to fixing a computer problem. You can make things far more worse off then a file association mishap. That being said, don’t let that scare you into not venturing into the world of registry editing… after all you do have that current back up if your computer goes ca-put right?!
Without further a due….
This fix is very simple. Most of the work is done for you, you just have to find it. Which might have brought you to this blog.
First
Find the proper registry fix for your OS:
XP: http://filext.com/faq/broken_exe_association.php (towards the middle of article)
Vista: http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/File-association-fixes-for-Windows-Vista.html
7: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/file-asso-fixes-for-windows-7/
They can also be found in a few other places as well if these do not work.
Second
Download the zip file and unpack registry fix file
Third
Right-click the registry file and select Merge. Restart you computer and it should be as if it never happened. Note: Make sure you are logged on as an administrator or have administrator rights other wise your computer will not allow you to execute the registry fix.
And there you have it! It wasn’t that scary right? I hope this helped.
Eat your food… Enjoy!
