Well…as the topic name suggests, Windows can’t open my file. But, while this has happened before to me, this time is different. Upon starting my computer, windows can’t open ANY file I have on my computer. Any ideas on why, and/or any ideas on how to fix this?
I’m running windows 7, if that helps any.
Details. What error message does it give along with the codes it displays. It’s too vague to make an assessment at this point. It sounds like your HDD/SSD is failing at this point.
(This is an a example, as I can’t screenshot on my own laptop to show the actual messages)
It’s simply a message that says “Windows cannot open this file” gives the file name, and asks to search the web for a program to open it with or to select a program from a list. Literally a hundred of these came up upon startup, and I’ve tried restarting 3 times to see if it was a weird glitch. It’s still doing it. Quite literally every program cannot be opened.
Looks like something has deleted most or all of your file type associations. These associations tell Windows which programs to use to open specific types of files e.g. Adobe Reader to open PDFs, Microsoft word to open .docx files, 7zip to open .rar files, etc. In order to restore the file type associations, you would generally go to Control Panel - Default Programs - Set associations, and use the list to set which program to use with which file types. However, since all of them disappeared at once, you might not even be able to get there, and you might have to set them one by one using the “select a program from a list of installed programs” option for each file that comes up. Additionally, this could be the result of a virus/malware, or possibly data corruption, perhaps due to failing hardware or power failure.
In any case, my suggestion would be to backup your personal data and reinstall Windows. If something that bad has happened, there’s no telling what else you might find after you fix all the file type associations, which might in itself take more time than reinstalling.
I searched around he interwebs for awhile and found several sources that said restoring the computer to factory settings would fix it. Since all my important stuff is backed up on an external hard drive, I did that. Seems to have worked. I honestly have no clue why it did this, since I don’t tend to delete important looking things out of caution.
Thanks for the help though. If it happens again, I’ll try your suggestion. By that time, I hope to have a new (and not so cheap) laptop to use.
Ah, so you have a preconfigured computer, like an HP or Dell? In that case, resetting to factory probably included what I suggested anyway, so you should be good unless you’ve got failing hardware, in which case you might start seeing any number of issues soon.
Yeah, it’s an HP. And an absolute pile of shite haha it was a gift. I’m saving up for a much better one, or an actual station. Preferably the second, since I’m a huge PC gamer and have been limited as of late due to this stupid laptop.
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