Hi..

I'm trying to run one of the windows Vista games, and it gives me a message saying "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations panel.". I tried searching the internet, but all it talks about is Windows Mail and power point slides... :\ It's not just the play option, neither support nor any of the others work either. Any help? :\

Thanks in advance :\

Which game are you trying to play? What version of Vista are you using?

Vista home premium, and this happens for every game

I'll need a specific example of a common Windows game that you're trying to play.
This can be an issue with the system not recognizing that type of file - or it can be a virus infection causing it.

Sorry =P the games minesweeper, solitaire, spider solitaire, freecell, hearts, mahjong titans, inkball, chess titans and purple place there don't work. This happens in the Games window in the start menu, the games themselves work if you click them through Start - Progams - Games, and also if I put a shortcut to another program on that window, it doesn't work either.

This computer's brand new, I hope it doesn't have viruses already =P

What's located at:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games and
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer ?

Where does the Game Explorer link point to (it's in the first folder that I asked about)? Right click on it, select Properties, then select "Open File Location". It should open a window to your Desktop.

This might be what you're looking for:

Click to view attachment

Edit: Sorry, noticed games won't work if games is not ticked.

no, the games are installed, and I can play them if I go to their actual location somehwere in appdata I think, I can't open them through where they're supposed to be opened through =P

I didn't even see usama's post till today..

In C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games there's the games, and the games explorer which points to my desktop. Then in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer there's nine folders with lots of letters and numbers and {s each containing two folders. One's Playtasks, where the game is, and the other one's Supporttasks, where the other stuff is. Also, that's the place games explorer displayed in the title of the pop up when I click the games.

I'm really sorry about that :\ I don't know how I didn't see that post

Don't worry about missing it. I haven't been around as much as I used to be - and I've got eye problems, so I miss stuff all the time.

Sounds like there's something amiss with the way that the games are called through the Game explorer. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173432(VS.85).aspx

One post that I've found cited the removal of shortcut arrows causing this sort of error. Have you done any tweaks/registry mod's on this system?

This post shows the same problem, but a lot of other things going wrong (it has to do with activation): http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/ShowPo...2&SiteID=25

yay, getting shortcut arrows back worked, thanks! I had gotten rid of them using Uniblue's system tweaker... but I really don't like them, they're too big in Vista =P is there no way to get rid of them without making the games stop working?

This will take care of the arrows, but I'm not sure about the effect on games.
It might be worth a try.

http://www.frameworkx.com/download.aspx?a=83&m=84

Yeah, that worked great! Games still work, and I managed to get some other stuff I needed =P thanks a lot =)

You're welcome. Happy to help.