I have a problem with viewing file extensions/associations. I am running XP with the latest Service pack. I am not sure when this began but pretty sure when I installed the free open office suite.
The problem is as follows: In explorer, when I go to folder options, ?file types? tab, the computer just hangs (a slight hesitation is normal). After a good 5 minutes there will appear about 15 entries that populate the window ? they are mostly Microsoft apps. There should be several dozen listing all extensions. Also on this tab, the advanced button does not work. Rather than reading ?advanced?, it looks like this |||||||||. When I click on it nothing happens. Also, no other program will open after this due to out of memory errors after clicking on the file types tab and I need to reboot.
The related problem is that all my MS Word .doc files have the MS WordPad icon for its extension instead of the blue W and I am unable to change this due to the above problem.
I ran ms office repair from the CD but that did not fix anything. I ran a regclean and that made no changes. The problem is in the registry but I do not know how to fix it.
I have searched numerous places online but have not found any related problem like this out there so any help would be appreciated.
TIA, Brad