Very Common and useful tip, EXE Files or Shortcuts Won't Run or Work.
Executable (.EXE) files are the programs you run for most tasks on a computer. Now and again someone reports that they have, in error, assigned some other program to the .EXE extension without first establishing a System Restore Point so they can recover from making this error. When that happens little will run on the computer. Instead, when an .EXE file is clicked some program will start and attempt to process that file instead.
A symptom of this often appears as shortcuts become .LNK files where the .LNK extension shows up and none of them work.
This is all fixed in the registry.
Note: The solutions presented here are for Windows 98 and XP. They have not been tried on other versions of Windows and won't work with Windows Vista. (For Vista scroll down to the bottom of the page.)
Further Note: Before attempting any fixes listed here turn any anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, or other anti- program off or at least disable their active monitoring of the registry. Such programs may have caused the problem by "fixing" the registry for you and may attempt to prevent you from fixing it yourself. Turn them back on when done but watch carefully what they want to do with the registry or you may be back here again.
First Thing to Try
Before playing with the registry try this first. Open the File Types dialog from any Explorer window -- use My Documents or My Computer (Tools | Folder Options | File Types Tab). Scroll down to where .EXE would be in the alphabetical order and make certain .EXE is not there (if it is, then edit it there by changing the association to Application). Finally, select the New button, type in EXE for the extension and select the Advanced button. From the list pick "Application." It should look something like this.
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bc77272a-c6d0-40d7-bac7-3869b1a2ab61|0|.0
exe files, shortcuts