I dont know what happened, im on the internet right now caz i restored my previous firefox session, but all my programs show the "unrecognized program" symbol. "Can anyone help me? I tried restarting but it did not help. The last time it was working all my programs just closed out, so i restarted and now it wont open anything other than these restored browsers.

Hi and welcome .
Ok, some questions.
1. What operating system are you using?
2. What does this unrecognized program symbol look like?
3. Can you remember the last thing or things you did before this problem?
4. Could you try a system restore? (If you don't know, I'll tell you how to get it depending on your OS).

im using windows xp. The symbol looks like a white page with a window in it that has a blue bar at the top, and 2 shapes inside it; One red and one like cyan. I was just playing an online game and my browsers all closed. So i tried to open them but everything seemed frozen, so i restarted now it wont recognize anythingg. Im still able to get on the internet though because ive been restoring my last firefox session.

I went start>programs>applications>system tools> and everything in there shows the symbol too, defragment and restore. Its like my computer forgot where everything is.

When i try to open anything, it just asks me to use the web to find a program to open it, or select one from the list.

Try System Restore to an earlier date- say seven days ago.

Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore

i cant, the system restore tells me to select a program to use to open it aswell..

Any idea on what directory i can tell it to use when selecting a program for system restore?

Now that's not good so go:

Start - Run - (type) sfc /scannow (with the space)(Enter)

sfc = System File Checker restores files to their correct state.

This may require you to put in your XP CD.

For futher, detailed, information on this procedure please click here:

scannow sfc - LEARN how to use SFC.EXE (system file checker)

i managed to restore it to a week ago, i got real lucky in trying to open system restore, and select the restore file from >c>windows>system>system restore. Thanks, im running spyscans etc to try to make sure i didnt pick something up.