Help !!! DLL files "open with" notepad????

I used the open with dialog a while back and forgot to "uncheck" the box that says " always use this program to open" and now all my DLL files show open with notepad. Although programs still open I have been getting "Blue screens" shutting down windows and telling me to restart my computer, a lot lately. This started after I carelessly associated dll fils with notepad. I am running Windows XP Home sp2 NTFS. How do I reassociate dll files appropriately? and is this what is causing my "blue screen" problems?

While what you did with notepad was less than good, I doubt it is causing the BSOD. These need to be tackled one at a time. Look in the "Best of XP" thread for the link about BSOD..

Thanks I got the BSOD problem taken care of (i hope) by calling MS and getting a hotfix. What do I do to resolve the dll association problem?

You don't have to do anything. Notepad is as good a choice as any.

Basically when a program needs to use or the use of a dll it will use it regardless of what association it has assigned to it. DLLs don't usually get opened by themselves unless you're going to dissect it and look at its code and notepad would be one of the things you could use. Or wordpad or a hex editor etc. So leaving notepad, as Steve says, won't have any effect one way or the other.

Stratcat149--Since there really is no purpose to opening a .dll file, leaving set to Notepad, as has been mentioned, will cause no harm.
However, if it really bugs you, you can probably get rid of that setting in the Registry. HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExt. Now find .dll in the list and click + and then click on the folder named OpenWithList. In the right pane remove Notepad.exe.
Good idea to back up the registry key first (File|Export) in case something gets fouled up.
FWIW--My registry shows the default for opening .dll files is iexplore.exe.

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Originally Posted by Welshjim

Stratcat149--Since there really is no purpose to opening a .dll file, leaving set to Notepad, as has been mentioned, will cause no harm.
However, if it really bugs you, you can probably get rid of that setting in the Registry. HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExt. Now find .dll in the list and click + and then click on the folder named OpenWithList. In the right pane remove Notepad.exe.
Good idea to back up the registry key first (File|Export) in case something gets fouled up.
FWIW--My registry shows the default for opening .dll files is iexplore.exe.

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hmm.., interesting, I thought that it assosiated it using the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT stuff, but I was wrong

I wonder why they do it that way instead.., just to complicate things?

Thanks all for the excellent feedback. I can rest at ease now that I know I didn't screw things up "too badly".

if you want to return it back to the original way it was so you know it is a .dll file then go to the path below in registry go to start > run > regedit
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExt\.dll in there should be a file called (UserChoice) delete the hole file then restart the computer and it should be back to normal

I would think after two years this OP has found the solution to his problem. Please don't resurrect old posts to post an answer Leonides. This one is now closed.