How to recover my documents file

I tried to open some documents and this is the message I get for the whole document folder "this file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options control panel. I don't know how to do this. I got into the folder options in the control panel but am lost as to what to do.
Can somebody please help me? I have Windows XP.

Thank you
Faydra

 

First in Folder options under the view tab untick the box for "Hide extensions for Known Filetypes" then hit Apply. That makes the three letter extension visible at the end of the filename.

Go back to your documents and tell us the filetype/extension (probably .doc for MS Word) of the files you are trying to open.

 

thanks sach2

I did what you said and yes the file name is .doc or MS Word

 

Do you have Microsoft Office, or at least the Microsoft Word portion? If not, Office Word Viewer will allow you to read and print them. http://majorgeeks.com/Office_Word_Viewer_d5787.html