What the fassizzle happened to my USB thumbdrive?

This didn't happen a few days before, but every time I double-click on one of my USB thumbdrives on my laptop, I get this this error message: Application Not Found


If I right click on the USB thumbdrive icon, I get this menu:


It shows that the default action is "Begin Office Installer", which I have no idea why it is even there since I didn't alter Microsoft Office in the past few weeks. I can open the drive up if I select explore from the right-click menu. It works fine otherwise.

I tried searching the web for solutions but I didn't find any. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for that USB thumbdrive. Didn't work. If I plug in my other USB key or my MP3 player into my USB ports they work fine. If I plug in my "bad" USB key into another computer, it works and a double-click actually opens it up!

Does anyone know how I can remove this "Begin Office Installer" option from Windows and the context menu. I'm using Vista Home Premium.

 

well i am having a similar issue with my HD drives in xp home. somehow find has become the default action.

go tools> folder options> file types tab. then choose the type. and you can change the default action in there. i think its the same for vista.

 

The files type windows is to associate files with applications. However, a thumbdrive isn't a file so it doesn't show up there. Do you have a screenshot to show what you did?

 

You might try removing all the USB devices, root hubs, and host controllers from Device Manager, then letting Windows redetect them after a restart. Plug the thumb drive back in after that and see if it appears.

You can also plug the thumb drive in and right click on it in Computer and choose Properties. Look for the Autoplay setting and see if it might be trying to Autoplay particular file types. Set it to never Autoplay or to prompt you for a decision.

Is the G:\ drive always been the letter assigned to the thumb drive or has it changed? My wife has a thumb drive with the U3 software built in to it and when I changed its drive letter after installing a second hard drive in the system, that software beginning auto executing everytime I'd insert the stick and the only way to access the files on it was through the Explore option. Double clicking the drive would try to launch the U3 program. When I switch the drive letters back so it could use the one it had before it stopped doing this.

 

Your first point about uninstall all the USB hardware device managers seems like a good idea. I will have to try that if nothing else works.

On my system I have autoplay disabled so I don't have an autoplay tab in Properties. And yes, as far as I know, that USB thumbdrive has always been the G drive on my computer.

 

Okay, I tried uninstalling all the usb device hosts and hubs. It didn't make a difference.

 

Right click and click Open or Explore

This happens to my cd drive, it tries to launch some application that doesnt exist when i directly click on the drive

 

Yeah, I know that method but I prefer to double-click to open instead of right-clicking and selecting.

 

Well, the izzle has gone out of the fassizzle. My USB thumbdrive is back to normal!!!! I don't know what happened but it all the sudden works again!!!!

 

Did you change any file associations or uninstall any programs lately?

How about a registry cleaner?

 

Well, I did run CCleaner yesterday and then today I installed SP1 for Microsoft Office 2007. I think, perhaps, the SP1 for Office corrected the registry settings.