I seem to have got lost somewhere... Let me try again:

My friend received .doc and .xls files as email attachments. Apparently, not realizing he did not yet have office reinstalled on his new notebook, he tried to open the first one with wordpad, also not realizing he was initiating an 'always open with' command. He tried the second with a similar result - looking at 'computerese.'

So, can someone tell me exactly, step by step, how to undo this so he can open files from email?

I appreciate any assistance.