Trouble with Files - Help?
I am having a lot of troubles with my notepad files. I double click on them and I keep getting a dialog box sayin, 'Cannot find notepad.exe' etc...
I have notepad because I can open it from my start window, but it won't open any of my notepad documents. Could someone pls help me figure out how to fix this? It would be much appreciated.
I have notepad because I can open it from my start window, but it won't open any of my notepad documents. Could someone pls help me figure out how to fix this? It would be much appreciated.
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Gobbles
DUMB sounding question (really not, and has to do with file associations that can cause the second thing-- notepad not opening .doc files after being opened). ANY chance you have a Wordpad also and can open the files that notepad will not open with WordPad instead, or open them with Word in Microsoft Office, or Open them with OpenOffice.org???
If Wordpad opens same files, Notepad has a size limit to files it can open, WordPad has a much bigger file size open limit. IF OpenOffice.org says it can open, I have seen OpenOffice.org used to save a doc file without using an export filter and just an extension change. Result is that Notepad and Wordpad can't open, but OpenOffice.org can. Save file as .doc type with an export (Save As allows export in a few OOo versions), WordPad can open files that are smaller than a certain size.
Could be an env variable or both an association and a corrupted notepad.exe location value or both an environment variable (non-global) and files saved with wrong extension. A global env var that is corrupt would gen lots of other Windows problems as well as these symptoms.
For the notepad.exe location env var fix, find notepad.exe on HD, write down where it is. Then open regedit (98 and Me) or regedt32 (2000 and XP) from start|run and look for notepad.exe using Edit|Find. Make sure the following are checked: Keys, Values, AND Data. Look and see if you have an entry with quotes at beginning and end as a value that exactly matches the location you wrote down with notepad.exe at end of that value. if you find other locations with notepad.exe at end, right click the wrong text, choose Modify option, change text to suit what you wrote down and make sure it is quote encapsulated (use " and NOT ' as character just before first path character and after last e in .exe at end, no spaces between path chars and "'s around the path var\value). IF your first search gets the "finished searching through registry." response, you probably need to close registry editor and simply skip to bottom paragraph, UNLESS you made a typo in the Find string you typed into the text box in Find.
Now, make sure you do not have conflicting dupes by using edit|Find Next, fix any other wrong path strings found EXACTLY as above, and repeat until the only reply you get is "finished Searching the registry." Let your registry editor hunt until it gives a result, with a unoptimized registry this can take quite a long apparent time on some boxes.
I will say the obligatory back registry up first, if you use this search Widnwos will still boot when done even if you mistype a path, but problem will still be there as far as not findign notepad.exe if you mistype, so if problem continues do the whole registry editor part again and cross check your typing and fix any typos. IF, after this, that issue still remains, do a virus scan and bot scan and trojan scan, as you might have a corrupted notepad.exe AS WELL or instead, and\or a corrupt shortcut.
A Google search will show you many examples.
The thing I was trying to explain before was that any logfile or whatever I try to open by double clicking from an icon - such as a hijackthis logfile - won't open unless i open through start l notepad l ...etc...
and if it is a corrupted file, is there anything i can do to fix this?
JohnD I don't know if you were saying that my question is Dumb, but I am not highly acquainted to computer language as some are. so i appreciate your help, but even reading that long instructional paragraph almost made my head spin.
OS? It is Windows XP Home edition 1998-2001? not sure what year.... that's what it says....
1) Open Windows Explorer
2) At the top, click "Tools", then "Folder Options" (left picture)
3) Click the tab marked "File Types"
4) Scroll down the list alphabetically until you find "TXT"
5) Highlight "TXT" and look at the bottom of the window, it will show you what program Windows wants to use to open that type of file. If it doesn't say "Notepad" (or Wordpad, as JD mentioned) click "Change"
6) In the "Open With" window (right picture), choose the program you want to associate .txt files with.
7) Click "OK" and see if it worked
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</br> See if the above works for you. If not, there are several ways to replace or restore the file.
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</br> Did this include a full virus scan using latest definitions? I wasn't kidding about all of those notepad viruses.
Good Luck!
No, I was saying the question I was asking might be regarded as dumb by others, but had a reason behind it.... There are no dumb questions for question askers who come here for help-- they ask because they do not know the answer. This site thrives because folks can get answers and not get "walked on" too much by others.
I work with lots of folks who do not know the language of computers, but all want to USE them to accomplish something. I hang out here because I inevitably learn things every day here in detail form, and learn more about security issues and symptoms-- if I can help I will, looks like you have been helped some but if things still do not work speak up and folks will help more.
O\S is short for operating system, the underlying parts that run the programs(in your box, you have Windows XP Home as operating system). Finding out which Windows version you had let us give you the right version of notepad for your particular Windows.
Windows links file kinds, or types, to programs with File Associations. As [profdlp showed neatly, windows thinks files that are .txt "belong" to Notepad to look at. Some folks want OpenOffice to open that file kind.
One way to confuse a program is to save a file with an extension that does not match the content, like saving a Word document the way Word normally saves it and putting .txt on end instead of .doc which is what Word uses. My dad did this, he used a word Processor, and had file types of .ltr for letter, etc. Windows did not know what to use to open files of type letter when he double-clciked on them, but Dad thought WordPerfect should do that. I finally gave up, told Windows to open files with .ltr on end with WordPerfect.... It worked for Dad.
Dad was a lawyer, wanted things his way on his computer. And got them that way more often than not. Each user should be able to get things his or her way to an extent. Since Windows did not use .ltr for anything special itself, I told it to do what Dad wanted with a file association creation.
Good luck!
:celebrate
Whooohoo! :Rocker:
:celebrate
I'm pretty sure I did not have any virus! Thanks so much for the help.