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notepad symbols error

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by shyguy706

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I have a dell Xp pro laptop, lately it opens all programs with a bunch of wierd symbols. no matter what I click on it opens up in word pad with these symbols.Because of that I cant even run my virus scan.

2 replies

by cptomlly

Are you saying that even applications are launching with WordPad? Sounds like this may be a problem with file extension association on your PC. Try opening a command prompt (Start>Run and enter CMD), then enter this command "assoc.exe=exefile" (w/o quotes). Then try again to open a program. This will hopefully restore the association (to default WinXP settings), and you will be able to run your virus scanner.

If this does not fix it, you may need to edit the registry to repair a damaged association. Post a comment on my answer if this doesn't fix the issue.

by gabriella

It could be a virus... had this problem last year... I corrected this by going to registry and checking everything, I mean everything.. took me several days.. but I did find it and deleted it...or it is coded with unicode from Microsoft. some files are not needed.. and I delete them= no problems.

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