Alright, so here's what happened. Today I tried downloading one of the extras for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, specifically the short story that got released just today.

Well I downloaded it and went to open the file, but it said that the program needed to be extracted. I'm not sure what that means. I've never tried downloading any extras before. Well I fiddled around with it for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to make it work, and ended up accidentally extracting it using Windows Media Player. Now the file has the WMP icon next to it, and clicking on it just opens WMP.

Obviously that's not the right thing to do, so I deleted the file and tried to re-download it. But that won't work. Every time I download the extra the file is still extracted with WMP. I even tried downloading a completely different extra, after deleting everything and restarting my computer, and the same thing happened.

So, how can I fix this? And for the future how can I extract things correctly to be able to actually use the extras?

You need a proper app to extract files with multiple files. The most famous of one in winrar, check out this link on how to download it and use it :) (or just google how to extract files)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QNSue2XBxY

Extracting archives like *.zip or *.rar: WinRAR

Disassociating the *zip file type from WMP in Win XP: go to tools>>folder options>>file types, find the
*zip file type association, click on it and click on 'delete'

Disassociating the *.zip file type from WMP in Win 7/Vista can be done with this: http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/remove-file-type-associations-in-windows-7/

It means that you downloaded an archive. Inside that archive is the file you actually want to get to, in this case a .pdf file.

So, you need a program capable of handling archives, a program capable of extracting the .pdf file from within the .zip archive.

You can give 7zip a go, that's what i use.

I'm just curious and please don't take this question the wrong way, but how have you gotten this far without an extractor? I must use mine minimum five times a day.

Another vote for 7zip. Also, doesn't windows have a extractor installed already for .zip files?

Okay, so I'm using Windows 7, I've got 7Zip installed, but now I'm at a brick wall. I used the link that Randalator gave to figure out how to change the file type association, but I cant figure out how to use the file afterward. When I tried to select 7Zip there were three options. 7Zip Console, 7Zip GUI, and 7Zip File Manager. The first two options do nothing when I attempt to open the file. The third option gives an error message. The file is a PDF type, not sure if that matters though.

Am I doing this wrong? Should I be using the actual 7Zip application instead?


Also to answer your question tinyE, I'm not sure myself. I've heard of things like Winrar and 7Zip before and I know a lot of people use them. I've just never run into an instance where I needed to use it myself I guess.

Right click on the zip archive and choose the option "extract here"

Edit: If you already have the .pfd just open it. I assume you have a .pdf reader installed ?

You remember that correctly. Early v1 installers had option to install Foxit Reader.

They did. First Adobe Reader, then either Foxit or Sumatra (I forget which), then none because most people already has it and removing it saved some space.

WOW, my memory was right?

It seems better at things long ago than recent. I'm trying to play a game right now with a maze and I'm getting so frustrated because I literally can't remember which directions I've tried and haven't tried 15 or 20 minutes into it, and have been in this same maze now for three days. Makes me want to scream.

I was just thinking the same thing. That is actually quite impressive that they have went so long without using one.

Awesome! Thank you everyone for the help. I went and got the Foxit Reader that Maighstir linked, set it as the default PDF Reader and now the file opens without a problem.


And yes, before you all die of shock, I did not already have a PDF Reader of any kind and I've never even heard of them before. To be perfectly honest I don't do much on my PC except browse the internet and play video games, so I'm kind of lost when it comes to the more technical side of things.