We have windows xp, somehow all programs (word, publisher, accessories) are now excel documents...?

Question

Does anyone know what I can do to correct problem? Kids were using computer for games when it happened.

Answer 1

If you mean the actual programs (winword.exe, ...) have been changed to excel documents (.xls or similar), I would suspect one of those "games" also downloaded some malware. Changing them back will probably require an reinstall of MS Office, but first you'll have to get rid of the bad guys, or it's likely to just happen again..

If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run it. If you don’t, many people here swear by AVG (it’s free).
I also suggest you download Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above don't seem to be able to get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again, this time in Safe Mode. Safe Mode often prevents the malware from running and protecting itself.

Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.

To get into Safe Mode:

1.Log out and reboot your machine.
2.When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.
3.Select Safe Mode from the resulting menu.
4.The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different. You won't be able to see the Internet, for instance. Log in as Administrator. Administrator often has no password.
5.When you're finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.

Update and run them all regularly.

Good luck.

By the way, someone else suggested you give everyone their own login. A good idea, but if you do, make sure they do NOT have administrator rights. (Start->Control Panel->User Accounts->Change An Account->Change the Account Type->Limited) Keep it yourself, though.

With kids, that simple step could save you hours of grief.

Answer 2

I hope you don't have a lot of files!
I would:
open the file to see what it is (Word, Excel, whatever)
then right-click it and select "open with"
or, see if you can open a file and "save as"
then save as filetype whatever

Looks like you may lose formatting.

Might be a good idea to give each user his/her own account so whatever they do will not affect your files. First, set yourself up as administrator so you maintain control and can set limits.

Answer 3

Go to this site:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Run the EXE file association fix..

Happy Computing!