cannot open .exe files
 

this probably has something to do with codec. the computer i installed it on doesnt recognize the wireless air card hardware that is my only means of connecting to the internet...sucks.

yay, first post.

What exactly are you trying to do? You can't run Windows executables under Linux (not natively anyway).

if you need to execute windows based executable you must install wine, but i am not %100 sure that it will help you.

Use "sudo /sbin/lspci" and determine which device controller is used. With that info, you can determine which driver to load and if you need to use a cutter program to cut firmware files from a Windows driver.

Your title and the post don't match.
Please give details, the distro you use, the problem you have and what you need and we'll provide help.

If you're trying to install drivers for your wireless card, you may want to try the command "unzip" (assuming that the exe is a self-extrating executable). Other than that I don't know how to help you, other than finding a friend with a windows box and extracting the drivers that way.

sorry, but im a total linux noob. i have no clue what im doing whatsoever.

please direct me to wine

As someone asked before, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to install wireless card driver? Also, which distribution of linux are you using? Can you give us a bit more info? (Un)Fortunately, we are not mind readers:)
1. What linux are you using?
2. what is the output of /sbin/lscpi (type it in the command line window)?

What distro and version are you running?

Do you really not know how to use a search engine? http://www.winehq.org/