Okay I screwed up and I know it but I;m sure someone can fix it. I'm computer saavy enough to know a bit more than your average PC/Videogame user. I like to learn about Hexidecimal and as such I have a habbit of opening .DAT files and messing with them.(I always back them up first.) Heres the trouble though. for you computer saavy people this will be a breeze to understand.

knowing that .DAT file extensions do not have an associated program to open them with outside the game im fond of using the Right-Click open with command and either using my hex editor or my notepad program. when this box opens the list of programs for you to choose there is a checkbox that you can check or uncheck accordingly to ALWAYS ASSOCIATE THIS TYPE OF FILE WITH THIS PROGRAM.... somehow or other I managed to click the dam thing and now all of my .DAT files are associated with freakin notepad. sure im saavy enough to know what to look for but when it comes to knowing how to UNDO that particular action I'm clueless..Help!!!

BTW the change has not affected my game and it still plays just fine.