Hi, So I've been using this computer for quite a while now, and yesterday in the middle of the night, I believe it automatically ran a software update from Microsoft. This morning, when I found the computer had been restarted and was at the login page. I logged on but found that a majority of my applications would not launch. Internet Explorerer, Mozilla, Matlab, Instant messengers...almost all standalone applications will not start. I can double click them, the mouse goes busy for a second and then nothing happens. Please help me if you can, I'm very frustrated by this. I need to have access to my programs, and I don't want to have to go through the lengthy process of reinstalling Windows. Thank you. George

do a system restore back a few days

Hi mountain, Yeah, I didn't see any posts on this issue, but I read someone's response to someone else's problem regarding system restore. I did try it and it worked. Thanks for your response, though. However, I'm still curious as to what might have caused something like this. If anyone has an explanation, I'd be glad to know. Thanks again. George

It's a Windows bug that happens often when a given update is installed. It can happen for no known reason as well. Bookmark this page, it contains many fixes for file association ills. In your case, the .exe fix may have worked. sLLs