WinXP Context Menu Problem

The problem appeared suddenly, if I right click on a file in Windows explorer and then choose "choose program" from the context menu notepad opens and tries to display the file. Many types of file are affected avi, wmv, zip, rar. They all have the correct file association, the problem is only triggered by selecting Choose Program. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like a reg. file assoc. problemm,,try here this should work,,http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

 

THIS should help.

 

A couple more ideas that aleast one should work is,,(any one of these should work ,I favor the last one),, Click ,,http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm ,go to the right side no.203,,,and http://windowsxp.mvps.org/openas.htm

 

Re: WinXP Context Menu Problem - SOLVED

Thanks Nick and Earthling, in fact neither Doug Knox's solution nor Kelly's solved. The problem was a rogue key that had appeared in the registry,
"!8OpenInNotepad"

This is how the registry looked with the problem:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown]
"AlwaysShowExt"=""
"QueryClassStore"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell]
@="!8OpenInNotepad"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\!8OpenInNotepad]
@="Open in Notepad"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\!8OpenInNotepad\command]
@="\"notepad.exe\" %1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\openas]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\openas\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,25,00,53,\
00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,\
79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,4f,00,70,00,65,00,6e,00,41,00,\
73,00,5f,00,52,00,75,00,6e,00,44,00,4c,00,4c,00,20,00,25,00,31,00,00,00


and this is how it looked when the problem had gone:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown]
"AlwaysShowExt"=""
"QueryClassStore"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell]
@="openas"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\openas]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unknown\shell\openas\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,25,00,53,\
00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,\
79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,4f,00,70,00,65,00,6e,00,41,00,\
73,00,5f,00,52,00,75,00,6e,00,44,00,4c,00,4c,00,20,00,25,00,31,00,00,00


The hunt for the "unknown" key was triggered by http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-t...-from-open-with-or-recommended-programs-list/

Then it was a question of comparing 2 PCs and importing the key from the good one to the other one.

 

Well I'd certainly not ever have found that! Good work!

 

Well Earthling, 4 solutions ,and yours and one of mine were the same,,and I have to agree ,I would have never found that either !!!!