EXE Problem, Can't Open Up Programs

Everytime I click on an 'exe' program I get a box saying (example):

Code:

C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe
Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the start button, and then click search.

It won't let me open the programs. I can open up word, and notepad but I can't open the .exe files.

I've been in My Computer, changed the folder options of the regestered file types and created a text document named repair.reg but it doesn't seem to solve the puzzle!

Please can someone try to make sense of this and give a helping hand, will be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello SnakE187EyeZ,

This MS article describes the symptoms you're experienceing:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q172053/

The article is for NT systems but it might point you to the right area of the Registry.

If the OS is XP - have you tried a System Restore back to prior the problem?

Otherwise do the following:

Please download HijackThis! SetUp from http://downloads.malwareremoval.com/HJTsetup.exe
Save the file to your desktop.

Double-click the HijackThis! SetUp icon to begin the installation.

Follow the prompts for the defualt install location of:'C:\Program Files\HijackThis'.

Tick the 'Create a desktop' button when the option appears.

Select next, then allow HijackThis! to start.

Then press the [Scan] button.
You will notice the [Scan] button will turn into a [Save Log] button.
Click the [Save Log] button and notepad will open up with the contents of the scan.
Right-click in the saved log, and select 'copy'.

Then proceed to your original thread, unless otherwise instructed and click the '[Reply]' button and paste the saved contents to be reviewed.

Do not make any modifications to the log or perform any 'fixes' until told to do so.

Regards - Charles

 

Ok I'll try to download and run that program but I don't think I will be able to open it as it is an .exe file. I'll try it anyway though thanks and will post the log if it works.

By the way is there anyway to open up a program/file for temp basis as hopefully if there is a way (maybe changing the .exe to another format?) then I may be able to do a system restore?

Thanks.

 

None that I know of.

Give bringing up SR from a command prompt a shot:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449&sd=tech

If none of this works - can't run HJT or the command prompt, the only alternative I see is to do a repair on the installation: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

For this you'd need an XP OS disc.

For the time being, I'm going to treat this thread as a XP problem, that'll give a wider audience to this problem.

If it turns out to be malware, we'll move it back.

Regards - Charles

 

Okay a little bit of progress, I managed to get my safe mode working (waited that little bit longer lol), but the flip side was that the system restore (guided from the command prompt) didn't solve the problem.

I'm going to try to use the .exe files/programs on safe mode and try to eliminate the worm.

 

I managed to solve the puzzle!

For future reference:

I saved the following code (on a new text document) as *.INF file type, right click & select "Install ".

Thank you for you help, very much appreciated!

 

If you still have some any problem after your repair, get the exe association fix from Doug Knox. That's a zip file and will decompress to a .reg file that when run will put the .exe file association back to normal in the many registry keys involved.

 

Thanks.

I now have my PC running faster and better than before! I ran a Hijackthis log and deleted the spyware and whatnot as supported from Hijackthis.de and installed a firewall, an anti-virus program and ran a few anti-spyware programs on safe mode. I also installed Firefox as my default browser as I read that Internet Explorer is a source for many problems.

I also have set a system restore at this current time as if anything goes wrong I can also go back to this.

Thanks folks for all your help.