Reg Prob- Programs wont open/cant download

Something has become very wrong with my XP.

I was getting strange Application error pop ups from programs I currently had, but would not open the programs. I tried downloading some repair programs, but after downloading them, it would not let me open them.

I figured something was wrong with my registry, but I dont have a Recovery Disk and the Recovery F11 (or F whatever wont work-- by the way I have a Dell 5150). My restore points won't go back further than a week, which doesn't fix the problems.

I have run antivirus-- everything seems okay. I have run a couple of reg scans and it says everything is ok. I don't know what is going on.

Any suggestions?

 

http://filext.com/faq/broken_exe_association.php

read above and follow the instructions, it appears that your .exe file has become undone.

Then do the following:

Download, install, update and do full scan with these free malware detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

Remove all found, reboot, and run again until scans run clean, these can be removed afterwards if you so choose. Run scans one at a time, please.