Vista - IE takeover

So I was trying to open an exe file with IE, not knowing what program to use ( because i got prompted to choose one), and accidentally set all of my exe files to open with IE. Now my shortcut symbols have changed to IE webpages and none of my programs will work without trying to open an IE window and giving me an error message. How can you fix this?

In Windows explorer, right click on any .exe file and select Open With and browse into your Windows directory and select "explorer.exe" and check the box that says "open all files of this type with" yadda yadda. That should set it back the way it was.

If that doesn't work, see if you have a restore point older than when you changed the setting.

Thanks for the advice
However I don't get a "open with" prompt at all and I get the same problem when I try to open the system restore tool... Is there any other way to fix this problem?

When your system boot press the button it shows for more booting options, like Safe Mode. Press the option to do a restore point. If you can't figure out how to boot safe mode from your machine I'd try going to the forum of the specific PC maker or try google.