Matt?

So yesterday (the exact day my warranty expired... coincidence?) my laptop with Vista developed a problem when attempting to open any program, such as Word, FireFox, Paint, etc. Instead of the program opening, I get the "Open With" window which normally comes up when I try to open a document or application without a default program set to it. So in other words, it's asking me what program I want to open FireFox with, or what program I want to open Excel with...

I assumed the obvious answer would be to choose the program itself to open itself with. This does in fact work with SOME programs such as FireFox, which then opens, but does not work with other programs such as Internet Explorer or MS Word. Instead I get an error saying it can't open the file. And with the programs where this technique does work (such as FireFox), the box to "always use the selected program" is greyed out, so I can't set the program as a default to open itself with, to avoid the problem the next time I open the program again.
原帖地�: TechSpott - Computer and technology forums http://www.techspott.com//showthread.php?p=5343

I also get the same problem with the "Open With" window when trying to access settings in the Control Panel such as "Change Startup Programs" or "Manage Audio Devices." So I have no access to those and other Control Panel settings at all.
I already had McAfee run a Virus Scan. Nothin'. Also did a Windows Defender scan. Again, nothin'.