Sounds like the file association for the .exe files has been wiped, could
also be due to virus infection.

For Windows XP - http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm
Look for the exe fix. See if that helps to get you up and running so you can
further investigate what happened.

For Vista:
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...ows-Vista.html

Please always state what operating system you have as it saves me guessing.

K

"Maestro" wrote:

> You cannot do a System Restore or anything. Every program or function you
> try to access elicits the same response: "Windows cannot open this file...To
> open it, Windows need to know what program was used to create it."
>
> It seems to me that what has happened is that all the .exe file extensions
> have been renamed to .lnk, and I think this has something to do with the
> Lavasoft Ad-Aware program I have on the computer.
>
> "TaurArian" wrote:
>
> > Have you tried removing the update or doing a system restore to see if that rectifies the
> > problem?
> >
> > --
> > ====================================
> > TaurArian [MVP] 2005-2008 - Australia
> > ====================================
> > How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
> > http://taurarian.mvps.org/index.htm
> > Emails will not be acknowledged - please post to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
> > Computer Maintenance: Acronis / Diskeeper / Paragon / Raxco
> >
> >
> > "Maestro" <Maestro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:C77F91ED-D6DA-44F3-B732-9080E618CB2D@microsoft.com...
> > | Tonight I updated my desktop computer to Windows' Office 2003 Service Pack 3.
> > | Since doing so, my computer does not start up or work correctly.
> > |
> > | All the icons on the desktop are not correctly displayed. If I try and
> > | click on any of them, I get this error message for each and every program:
> > |
> > | Windows cannot open this file.
> > | File: Digital Line Detect (for example).lnk
> > | To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it.
> > |
> > | It seems that the program is with the .lnk file association.
> > |
> > | This is a most annoying problem, and one I need to get fixed immediately.
> >
> >
> >