I have files that have been on my computer for over a year and all of a sudden they wont open and an error message comes up saying they were improperly downloaded or came in an email attach which is not the case

[giskaj]

I have files that have been on my computer for over a year and I have used them several times and all of a sudden they wont open.  I received an error message saying they are improperly downloaded or came as an email attachement which is not the case.  Please advise

[pwillener]

What kind of files?

What is the exact message you are getting?

If the files are PDF documents: what is your operating system?  Reader version?

[giskaj]

They seem to be word files - they will open if I choose "open with" microsoft word, but if I double click they don't open they are appearing as PDF on my screen.  I even opened one and then tried to "save as" making sure I chose .doc and they still appear as PDF

I just created a new document response.doc in word and when I saved to my desktop it appears as a PDF file and I absolutely did not create a PDF or save as PDF it was a simple word

doc.

The message says "Adobe reader could not open response.doc because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example attached in an email and not properly decoded)

The reader version is I believe the most current, I always update when prompted.  OS is Windows 8

[Sara_Forsberg]

Hi giskaj,

It sounds like the file associations have become confused in Windows. Please see this Help document from Microsoft for information about how you can reset those file associations: Choose the apps Windows uses by default - Windows Help.

Best,

Sara