help opening files

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Faldo - 30 Nov 2005 04:30 GMT

Hi,
I'm having problems opening up files (.dat, .sys) on my P.C. Whenever
I try to open a file, a message pops up and states that the file is not
a valid win32 application. What do I need to do to get this straightened
out.

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John John - 30 Nov 2005 04:38 GMT

Why do you want to open these files? Do you get a message with every
type of file you try to open or just .dat and .sys files?

John

> Hi,
> I'm having problems opening up files (.dat, .sys) on my P.C. Whenever
> I try to open a file, a message pops up and states that the file is not
> a valid win32 application. What do I need to do to get this straightened
> out.

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Heirloom - 30 Nov 2005 04:54 GMT

.......or you could go to www.sysinternals.com and download a little app
called Filealyzer. This will allow you to look at these types of files and
even show a text interpretation of the hex. It is great for looking into a
.zip file to see what it contains without actually opening it, as well.
Heirloom, old and going to bed now

> Why do you want to open these files? Do you get a message with every type
> of file you try to open or just .dat and .sys files?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>> a valid win32 application. What do I need to do to get this straightened
>> out.

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Faldo - 30 Nov 2005 16:13 GMT

I was trying to edit msdos.sys when I noticed the problem. I since ran a
restore and it fixed the problem.
I think this occurred when I was trying to remove "open with" entries
from the right click. How do I remove "open with" entries when right
clicking a file . A box opens with alot of entries and asks to choose
from the program to use. There are alot of programs listed that are
either not on my computer or will I never use to open up files
(updateipr, powerDVD, and one of two windows media player, etc.). How do
I remove these from the list.

> Why do you want to open these files? Do you get a message with every
> type of file you try to open or just .dat and .sys files?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> > a valid win32 application. What do I need to do to get this straightened
> > out.

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John John - 30 Nov 2005 18:32 GMT

The Right-Click menu is called the Context Menu. It works with registry
entries or with Context Menu Handlers. It can be a bit difficult to
find and remove these items properly because they can reside at
different places in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry hive. Read this
series of articles to get a good handle on how it works:

Prune Your Context Menus
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,9879,00.asp

ContextEdit is no longer free from PC Magazine but it can be downloaded
here free: http://esca.atomki.hu/paradise/sac/utilfile.html (look for
cnxtedit.zip) The application can be a bit confusing to use, an easier
but less powerful alternative might be: Context Menu Editor available
at: http://www.bartdart.com/

Usually when programs are properly removed the uninstall routine removes
the associated program entries from the context menus. If you use the
programs but don't want its context menus, or if you don't want to
uninstall the applications, you can check the program options to see if
it provides for removal from the context menus. Also, if you really did
remove a program and if it did have a unique file extension (example,
like .123 for Lotus) you can use Folder Options>File Types and remove
the registered file type. Be careful when removing registered file
types, if you are unsure leave them alone! For example Nero will tag
.dat files as its business and mark registry files as Nero files. Not
knowing that .dat are also registry files or Anti-Virus files and
removing the .dat file type could cause problems.

John

> I was trying to edit msdos.sys when I noticed the problem. I since ran a
> restore and it fixed the problem.
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
>>>out.

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