thanks james for the link, however I have tryed everything that was listed on the Microsofts site, and vc is still trying to open any .py file using notepad,and now most of my commands are not working. do you know by chance what default program win 8.1 uses to open a .py file? I looked on my other computer and it has listed under (open using) unknown program.i may have to reinstall windows in order to take care of this issue,but that's my last option