Okay, so i downloaded dosbox for vista a few days ago and did something wrong. I deleted it off my computer but now the some of icons on my desktop are replaced by the dosbox icon and is I click on any of them, I have to find the program in my computer so I can use it. For some reason, most of the programs anywhere are like that.
I don't know what to do! Please help!!
and did something wrong.
What did you do wrong?
I installed it and I could not figure out how to play a game using dosbox. I tried mounting it with PowerISO thinking that it might work. So I right clicked it and put Add to image file...didn't work so I did Add to PowerISO .daa
I'm no computer person so really I had no idea what I was doing...
Then when I look at my desk top, a bunch of my icons are dosbox icons, when I tried to open them the dosbox program opened and...lets say Firefox...didn't open.
So I deleted dosbox thinking that might work and...well it didn't and every time i tried to open a program the computer cant find it and asks me what program to open it up with and I have to go to program files to open it up...
its totally fucked up and I really can't figure out what the hell I did wrong...
I'm not really sure because I can't remember what else I did but I'm sure thats it...
So I deleted dosbox thinking that might work
Did you uninstall it or just delete the directory?
Im quite sure I uninstall it...I could not find it in my installed programs though so I just deleted everything that I could find of it...
I added the pic of my desk top in a attachment...not sure how to add a pic...
Oh my word. That looks interesting. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that you have accidentally pointed the .exe file association at DOSBox, probably in a misguided attempt to open a single executable using DOSBox and then having the "always open with this program" checkbox in checked state.
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So how do I fix it?
Wow, I didn't think Windows would be dumb enough to let you do that.
Try going to any folder and doing Tools->Folder Options->File Types. Find the entry for .EXE and delete it, then hit OK to close out the file types menu.
Another more brute force solution would be to try to roll back to the last System Restore point.
If it is that, you would need to restore the .exe association. This is commonly done with the registry editor... which you may not be able to run as it too is an .exe file and would suffer from the same problem. A reinstall would work, but is a bit drastic. It may be possible to start the registry editor while in safe mode, but I'm not in the mood to mess up a machine in order to test that theory. With a bit of luck you can open a .reg file containing the appropriate info and that might restore it. I've attached such a .reg file generated from my own Vista install. Be sure to unzip it first (if that is still possible -- unfortunately the forum won't allow me to add the .reg file directly and I get the feeling your setup won't allow you to easily alter the file extension). After extraction, you will get the .reg file. If you merge that into the registry (either by double-clicking it or by right-clicking and selecting "Merge" from the context menu it may restore the association.
Since this is all conjecture on my part, it may of course be ineffective. Also, even though I'm the person providing it in this case, I would generally caution against using random .reg files downloaded from the internet if you don't know what you're doing, as they can seriously mess up your system. The only assurance you have that this one won't is the word of a stranger (me).
If you can open the registry editor (regedit.exe), you could navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, find the .exe key, and see if its "(default)" value is "exefile". If it is, then find the exefile key and see if it looks weird. Exefile's shell->open->command key's "(default)" should be something like: "%1" %*
ok i tried to go to the last system restore point....didn't let me...
I'm not sure what you mean HunterZ...explain more?
Kippesoep I tried your .reg file and it said: not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes. Not sure what that means...
ripa it wont let me open it...
wrote:Kippesoep I tried your .reg file and it said: not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes. Not sure what that means...
That is actually good news. It means that you can use .reg files. Try rebooting Windows into safe mode (by pressing F8 -- see here ). Then it's likely to be able to import the file fully. After you have done so, reboot the computer and hopefully all will be fine.
And for the record: not DOSBox screwed up the computer, the user did it.
