unrecognizable exe files

ok, my friends deleted some windows files. and now all exe files are unrecognizable. none of the icons actually do anything now when clicked on and the icon itself is the generic windows doesn't recognize type file.

I can't figure out what file or folder even was deleted.
(I managed to get to IE, although the desktop icon doesn't work, even properties is unavailable).

To be more specific, all exe icons/files cannot be executed. Those under start menu as well as in the program folder can also not be executed.

Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

 

Welcome to the board.

Tread very carefully when deleting files. If ANY doubt, leave them.

No one, I mean NO ONE deletes ANYTHING on my PC's.

Grab your XP CD put it in the drive and from Start/Run type sfc /scannow. Note the space between sfc and /.

If you have SP2 installed and you haven't an XP install disk slipstreamed with SP2, then after running the System File Checker Scan and replace command you will need to run SP2 again.