Sorry if this request is a bit obscure, but I’m a total computer Luddite, so I don’t know the right terms. I’m running Windows 98 with MS Office etc and I’ve just survived a multiple virus attack. (Sorry, don’t know the names of the viruses.)

Got rid of the viruses, but apart from deleting a lot of the drivers, to the graphics card for instance, (pics still opening, but not displaying properly), they stopped individual files programs associating with programs (for want of a better term). Sorry if that’s not quite the right way of putting it.

So my question: can I tell my computer what programs I want launched by a particular file type?

Oh, and is there a good site to find graphics card drivers?

Thanks in advance.

Croozin

You can associate a file type with a program as long as that program knows what to do with that type of file e.g. .jpg can be opened with various programs but .doc files are a little more fussy.

The easiest way to do this usually is to reinstall the application that should open the files. However you can do as you asked there are a couple of ways and I am sure others will jump in with other suggestions but the easiest way is to double click the file if it is completely unassociated and choose the program that you want from the list you will be offered, down towards the bottom of that window there should be an option to always use the particular problem.

The other way to do it is to hold down a Shift key and in the pop up menu you will have a new option to Open With this will give you the list of programs that windows knows about and you can then choose the option to always open with.

There is another way but it is a little more complicated and I find that generally one of the above will work but if you are stuck let me know.

Thank you Front_Seat_Dreamer. Problem solved. Talk about quick answers!

The link below has helped me in the search for all sorts of drivers

http://www.driverguide.com

rickity systems

I'll try that, but I normally go to Explorer then Tools + Options then the File Types tab. I thought that was where associations were made. and associating is a little different from replacing lost drivers.