Otherwise,
search the Web for the program name and the word ???uninstall??? to see
whether there are any special removal tools or procedures for the program
you??™re trying to remove.
Of course, neither of these tools will do you much good if Windows won??™t
start. There??™s also an entry called Last Known Good Configuration in the
Vista startup menu (covered in Chapter 1), typically shown if Windows
didn??™t shut down properly last time, or if you press the F8 key before Windows
starts loading. In theory, this feature starts Windows with an earlier collection
of hardware drivers and settings taken from the last successful boot.
In practice, however, Vista seems to have a hard time defining ???good??? (with
respect to the Last Known Good moniker), and is usually unable to find an
earlier configuration that either solves the problem or works at all. It??™s worth
trying if you don??™t have a valid Registry backup, but don??™t expect miracles.
File Type Associations | 123
The Registry
One might assume that the aforementioned text file somehow knows it??™s a
Notepad document, but that isn??™t the case. Instead, Windows determines
how to handle a file based solely on the filename extension. The extension is
the group of letters??”usually three??”that follow the period in most filenames.
For example, the extension of the file Readme.txt is .txt, signifying a
plain-text file. Likewise, the extension of Resume.docx is .docx, which means
it??™s a word processor document in the Microsoft Word 2007 file format.
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