None of my programs work, cant install or uninstall

Hello Adam, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if you may be able to download and merge the .reg file for the listed EXE option in the tutorial below. It will restore the default associations for .exe files, and hopefully help.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

In addition, I would recommend to use Windows Defender Offline to do a full scan of your system at boot to help make sure that your system is clean. If need be, create it on another 64-bit Windows to use on your system.

Hope this helps, :)
Shawn

Do you still have any Recovery discs?

Is the Product Key on the laptop base clear enough to read and copy?

Is there stuff on the lappy that you need? (Files, folders, Photos, music, videos etc.)

Can you transfer these to an external source? (External Hdd/another PC/DVD's, whatever.)

I have a 3+ years old DV7 and I recovered all my stuff to a USB key and Double-layer DVD, before writing down the Product Key and using another Win7/64 bit disc, to carry out a fresh install of Windows. Then I reinstalled all my programmes and other stuff.

This has the added bonus of removing all the HP software, which is frankly garbage. It speeds up your machine, if the Hdd and all other hardware is OK it will seem like a new lappy.

I think as a precaution you also need to look at a possible infection. If you get it back to working order, download an Internet Security product, check with Malware Bytes. Even Microsoft Security Essentials will help.

EDIT:
I wrote this post before seeing the others - follow their advice FIRST.

Did you already try what I posted above to restore the default associations for .exe files?

In that case, you might see if you may be able to do a system restore at boot using a restore point (if available) dated before this issue to undo and hopefully fix this.