Program Association Error

Periodically when trying to open some files I get an error message that reads:

"The file does not have a program association with it for performing this action. Create an association in My Computer by clicking View and then clicking Folder Options".

This is probably a dumb question but how does one determine which "file type" to select?

For the past couple of days a windows desktop icon appears and when I click on it I get the following error message:

C:\WINDOWS \DESKTOP\CUSTOM.DIC
"The file does not have a program assocation . . . . . . Create an association in My Computer . . . . blah, blah, blah.

I don't have a clue why or what I am doing that is causing me to keep getting this error message. I have had this same type error come up when receiving mail with attachments (NSTEMP files). I never could open them and didn't know how to determine what program I should use to open it with, so I always deleted them.

Thanks for any help!

 

You may need some further help, but for starters determine what the three letter extension is and look it up at a site like this:

http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileFormatA/0,289933,sid9,00.html

It will tell you what the "default" program that uses the file usually is. You may not have that program, but there may be others which can open it -- here you'll have to ask.

It's looking like that one is for Lotus Notes; you probably would need to have that installed, but perhaps someone else knows differently. You could try opening it in Wordpad or Word or even Notepad.