Uninstalled NMM, now can't download mods from Nexus

[SkyrimRob]

I was having issues a few days ago with NMM. Every time I tried to run NMM, I would get the "Nexus Mod Manager has stopped working, windows is checking for a solution" error message. I decided to uninstall/ reinstall NMM and that fixed the problem, but then my mod list in NMM is empty. I then decided to foget NMM (after multiple attempts to recover my mod list) and move to using Wrye Bash as my only mod manager. I uninstalled NMM yet again and went to begin redownloading mods off Nexus.

 

Now after I manually download mods, I am unable to open them. The mods appear as a blank piece of paper on the download bar ( as opposed to having the Nexus symbol on them when using NMM) and I get the error:

 

C:\Users\Robert\Downloads\(Mod name here)

Application not found

 

I tried reinstalling NMM once more, and the mods download just fine into my empty mods folder. This has been extremely frustrating and I'd appricate some insight. Anyone have any ideas why I can't download without NMM?

 

Thanks