Cannot open programs!!

[sully420]

Okay I have messed something up royally and I need HELP!

First my OS is 2000. I have Norton Antivirus. Yesterday Norton told me I had a trojan that it could not remove. This has happened before so I did the same thing and downloaded something to remove the trojan and then uninstalled it immediately. I used Trojan Guarder Golden Version 5.0. I believe that was my fatal error.

Now I cannot open any programs other than MS Office, Excel, & Outlook from the start menu or the toolbars. BUT I can open a file associated with a program and it will open the program. I try to open Norton and get this error: "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the folder Options Control panel."

I have no idea where to go from here. Thankfully I can open most programs via files. I cannot open software for burning my files off (Nero) which scares me and I also cannot open my FTP program. What a mess. Any suggestions are welcome.

I have a Windows XP CD sitting in front of me, but I was hoping to make it to the end of the semester before making this change. I have 2.5 weeks of mad work to do and a crash would probably mean flunking out of grad school

 

[ian.t]

Seems like your file associations have been thrown all over the place.

I'm not too familiar with Win 2000 but does it have a facility for turning back the clock when things go pear shaped big style? XP has system restore.

You could try reinstalling 2000 over the one you have. It's not always ideal but it just might heal the damage until you can get a clean install of xp.

Welcome to TSG by the way