Everything I try to open or execute gives me a strange error.

The error message that I am getting is:

"Paint cannot read this file. This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported."

This is with everything - add/remove programs, IE, Firefox, AVG... I can right click some items and choose "open" but that isn't helping me with trying to uninstall stuff to find out whats causing a problem.

I can't even press windows key+pause break to pull up system properties. I get the same message. Windows thinks everything is an image file.

I need help.

 

Try the exe file association fix at the link below.May help.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

 

<3 system restore

edit: Thank you for the link. In the very likely chance that system restore fails after the next reboot I will definately give it a try. Cheers!