I hope somebody can help me

OK, I did the top part with no improvement.
The extension is XLR.
It's 4.30 pm over here and I am just about ready to go out under the Gum tree for happy hour, don't let that stop you, as I realy appreciate your help.

I have been through this routine a couple of times but only get the choice of Abode and Word Pad, how can I change Word Pad for Microsoft Works Spreadsheet on the "open with" window?. When I open it with word Pad I only get pages of a million Ys and symbols like a coded message.

Spreadsheets should have xls extensions no? If your spreadsheet extension shows "pdf" then you can manually change it as shown by p5bdkw:

At the top of the explorer, click on Organize, Folder and search options, View.
Uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" box.
Hit apply and OK.

Now look at your spreadsheet file again. The three letters following the period should be "xls."
[which is what Microsoft Excel spreadsheets show.] If your spreadsheet shows "pdf" or something else then carefully overwrite that extension to xls.

To be safe, I'd then go back into View Folder options (above) and check "hide known file extensions."

Adobe Reader is too intrusive, imho. Foxit Reader (and there are other open source readers too) will not take over your computer in the same way. When Adobe installed it probably associated itself with a bunch of file types.

You can manually "un-associate" Adobe from various file types by using "Open With" but first see if this will open your spreadsheet.

Ambimom - Whoa, don't get confused: Microsoft Office (Excel) spreadsheets are .xls or .xlsx but Microsoft Works is a different program - that's why the extension is, as I'm told, .xlr. And for example, an Open Office Calc file is .ods.

One workaraound is delete the file type (not the file itself!) from the folder options -> view -> file types, then when you double click the file, being as it is now unknown to Windows, you should be prompted which program to open it with. Just navigate to the install directory and it *should* open...

Thanks everybody for your advice, unfortunately nothing seemed to work, ( of course it could be me). Anyway by taking the long road and going in the back door I have had some success. Does this make sense?
Rt click the file
Click open with
Click Microsoft Task Launcher
Click Spread Sheet
Click File
Dbl Click My docs
Click required file
Click open.
I finally have the page in front of me, and click print preview and only get half the page, I think I will stick with beach fishing, any dumby can do that.

In saying what I did during this adventure, I must respond and say thanks to all the people who have contributed. I think these forums are a fabulous way for people all around the World to help total strangers, and that makes us different to Big fish that eat Little fish.