# Residual Annoyance after a recent Bout with Malware **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672 "2010-11-23T16:53:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/1 "2010-11-23T16:53:12Z")
Had a recent Malware Battle. All good now as far as I can tell. Microsoft Security Essentials found one bogey, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware found three. All bogeys have been removed and everything is running smoothly. However, now whenever I want to open a program, whether by clicking the icon on my Desktop or by clicking on the program name from the list of programs out of my Start menu, instead of opening I get an “Open With” menu. I figured out how to get around this: Instead of left clicking I have to right click. Then, instead of choosing “Open” I scroll down and click “start”. Any ideas how to deal with this? Thanks! P.S. Starting this Thread just as I’m bout to leave the computer for a while. FYI ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/2 "2010-11-23T18:10:59Z")
What windows version? ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/3 "2010-11-23T19:16:45Z")
Sometimes when this happens to me (Windows XP), there’s a check box marked “always open this type of file with this program”, or something similar. Sometimes you have to select “choose the program from a list” first. Another thing you can do is go into control panel, then select folder options. Choose the “file types” tab, and you’ll see a list of different types of files, and you’ll be able to select what programs the file types are associated with. Options may be different/renamed/nonexistent on other versions of windows, but this works with XP and a few earlier windoes versions. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/4 "2010-11-24T16:20:33Z")
What you want is a way to restore your file associations. This will depend on your version of Windows, so I’m giving you the google search i did [here.](http://www.google.com/search?q=restore+file+associations&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) One of the entries on the first page should be exactly what you need. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/5 "2010-11-24T23:08:39Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > What windows version? XP **dzero** thanks for the links. Gonna do some reading up and get it figured out. Finding out that some programs (eg. Word) are giving an “Application Not Found” Error, but that I can then open a particular file saved in that program, then have full access to the program as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residual-annoyance-after-a-recent-bout-with-malware/561672/6 "2010-11-25T03:25:28Z")
[Give this a try.](http://windowsxp.mvps.org/exefile.htm)