big problems

[John M]

My problems started with a outbreak of some sort of
Adware. After running Hijack this + a couple other
removal tools my computer has basically stopped
fuctioning correctly. I can't open any .exe files other
than explorer, all of my icons in the program list and
desktop have an iexplorer icon. It seems that my file
types are messed up. I also get the message "Windows
cannot open this file"(needs to know what created
program) when I try to open anything, including system
restore, msconfig, regedit, etc.

 

[Guest]

For starters check to see if the drive letter these
programs are located on has changed (for example drive C
is now D in My Computer. Navigate directly to the program
you want to run and open it insted of using the shortcut
and see if it opens that way. For example to open
regedit: Go to My Computer and navigate here
C:\WINDOWS\regedit

 

[Lee]

Per your computer problem, I had the same happen to mine
yesterday. Here is a reply I received 9/21:

---------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: All .exe files suddenly fail to run
From: "Vicky Vale" <[email protected]> Sent:
9/21/2004 7:30:56 AM

if you are comfortable with regedit follow these
instructions to check my
theory.

click start -> run -> regedit

if regedit doesn't start and you get same error as
previous then rename
c:\windows regedit.exe to regedit.com and try running now.

look for this

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command

the entry should be
(default) REG_SZ "%1" %*
If not, change it to this.

if you had to rename regedit then now change it back.
-----------------------------------------------------

I plan to give the above a try. Please post back about
your progress.

Lee