Ok, a while ago I tried downloading something and it wouldnt work, so i changed the 'open with' in WinRAR bit to open with internet explorer (stupid I know) and now nothing will work. When i try to open the file, it opens up internet explorer and then closes, then a window with the options to 'open', 'save' and 'cancel' appear. When I click 'open' it opens internet explorer up and repeats itself

PLEASE HELP!!

Find a rar file on your computer. If you can't find a rar file, make a new text file and rename it to .RAR - it'll complain about that but tell it to do it anyway.

Right-click on the file and choose "Open With" - then choose WinRAR in the list. Make sure the checkbox to always use this program to open this type of file is checked. Then click OK.

That should fix it.

umm, when you say text file, do you mean word document? i tried it with a word document and tried to rename it as .RAR but it told me to give it a name.

Nope, not a Word document but a txt file created with Notepad.

ok, ive tried that but when i click 'open with' -> WinRAR Archiver it comes up saying C:\Documents and Settings\comet\My Documents\test.RAR.txt
then it says the archive is either in unknown format or damaged

what do i do here?

It's not a real rar file so of course it says that - it's complaining it's broken because it's just a text file you renamed.

Right-click on your desktop.

Choose New, and then Text Document.

Call it 'test.rar'

You'll get a question asking if you're sure you want to change the file extension. Say Yes.

Right-click on the file and choose Open With and then Choose Program.

In the list find WinRAR and select it.

Check "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" and then click OK. WinRAR will come up with an error since it's not a real rar file - that's okay. You've changed your file extensions which is what you needed to do.

You can now delete your test.rar file.

Opening all other rar files - i.e. real ones, will now happen in WinRAR.

ive done all of that, but because it wont let me open text.RAR in winRAR, it won't keep the box ticked, what should i do =[

You don't need to open test.rar, in WinRAR or anything else - reread HP's instructions, carefully.

ive got the box ticked

but now when i try to download something WinRAR opens up and the file name appears, but the icon next to it is still internet explorer, how do i change this