Existing applications won't run now

[Guest]

I hope someone can shed some light on a perplexing problem.
Our company has been developing and selling software for several years.

In the last two weeks, we have had several reports from long time users that
our software no longer runs.
When they double-click on an exe file nothing at all happens.
If they create a new user with admin privileges, they can run the
application as that new user. This even though the previous user had admin
privileges.

These are XP users with sp2. I haven't been able to determine any other
common thing that has changed on these machines.

These programs were installed over two years ago and have run fine until now.

What could have happen now to cause these machines to suddenly stop running
our programs?

What can I do?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

First off I am not a programmer or developer so I could not say exactly what
the problem is but I would try to find some common ground with the problem
as in did a specific event trigger it such as installation of SP2 or a
particular security update. SP2 tightened up security quite a bit which did
cause some applications to fail but that should not be something you are
hearing about just now. You can use Add and Remove programs and select show
updates to see what updates have been installed and when. I would also check
the membership of the user who is having a problem compared to the
membership of the user that is not to see if there is a difference. The
support tool whoami is probably best to do that with the /groups option.
Also the logs you see with Event Viewer can show valuable information though
you may need to enable more auditing such as privilege use, process
tracking, and object access for failure and enable auditing on all
folders/registry keys the application would use which is not a user friendly
process. Of course you would want to duplicate the customers computer
configuration even if it means cloning their computer so you can see
firsthand what is going on and compare to installations that are not having
the problem. SysInternals makes valuable and free tools such as
Filemon,Regmon, and Process Explorer that can track real time activity of an
application/operating system. Booting into Safe Mode and scanning for
malware/spyware should also be done. --- Steve

 

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.
Through a very fortunate circumtance, I was able to get hold of a machine
that is refusing to run one of our applications. It's sitting right here in
my office.

This machine has XP Home ver 2002 service pack 1.
On Sept 3. 2005 "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)" was installed.

The machine has two problems.
1. The Modem disappeared from Windows' notice, disabling its dialup
connection.
2 Our app EasyMail won't run.

Both the modem and EasyMail had been working for a couple years, and both
seemed to quit working at the same time.

The machine has two users: "Motorcycle Mike" and "Ruth the Sweet". Both have
admin privileges. Neither can run EasyMail, except in Safe Mode. EasyMail
will run in Safe Mode from both users. In Normal mode, the hourglass flashes
for a couple seconds and then nothing.

I can't see any new entries in the Events log after trying to start EasyMail
in Normal Mode.

Here I have the malfunction right in front of me, and I don't know the best
way to go at this thing.
Should I uninstall "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)"?
--
Chuck
Home Plan Software
------------------------------------------------

First off I am not a programmer or developer so I could not say exactly what
the problem is but I would try to find some common ground with the problem
as in did a specific event trigger it such as installation of SP2 or a
particular security update. SP2 tightened up security quite a bit which did
cause some applications to fail but that should not be something you are
hearing about just now. You can use Add and Remove programs and select show
updates to see what updates have been installed and when. I would also check
the membership of the user who is having a problem compared to the
membership of the user that is not to see if there is a difference. The
support tool whoami is probably best to do that with the /groups option.
Also the logs you see with Event Viewer can show valuable information though
you may need to enable more auditing such as privilege use, process
tracking, and object access for failure and enable auditing on all
folders/registry keys the application would use which is not a user friendly
process. Of course you would want to duplicate the customers computer
configuration even if it means cloning their computer so you can see
firsthand what is going on and compare to installations that are not having
the problem. SysInternals makes valuable and free tools such as
Filemon,Regmon, and Process Explorer that can track real time activity of an
application/operating system. Booting into Safe Mode and scanning for
malware/spyware should also be done. --- Steve

 

[Steven L Umbach]

What I would do if possible is to first make an image of that computer with
something like Norton Ghost so that no matter what you do you can get the
computer back to the original state for a quick restore because it will
become difficult to track things down as you make changes and try things.

You can uninstall the update though I have to wonder if it is related since
it was installed a couple months ago unless the problem happened right after
that. Since the application works in safe mode that tells me there is a
problem with a startup service, application [including malware/spyware], or
maybe even a driver. You can use msconfig to do selective startup of the
operating system to try and track down what service/application/driver is
causing the problem and this can be tedious because it has to be done in a
trial and error method. Look again in Add and Remove programs for any
applications that have recently been installed which could be suspect. I
would also do a full scan for malware and spyware because they can also
interfere with an application starting. AdAware SE is a pretty good spyware
program and whatever antivirus program you use be sure to use the latest
virus definitions that are up to date as of today. Trend Micro Sysclean
should be used as a second opinion for malware and it is free. You can use
Device Manager to check the status of and to test the modem. See the links
below for more details. --- Steve

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html --- AdAware SE
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp --- Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp --- virus pattern file
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434 ---
advanced clean boot troubleshooting using msconfig
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.
Through a very fortunate circumtance, I was able to get hold of a machine
that is refusing to run one of our applications. It's sitting right here
in
my office.

This machine has XP Home ver 2002 service pack 1.
On Sept 3. 2005 "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)" was installed.

The machine has two problems.
1. The Modem disappeared from Windows' notice, disabling its dialup
connection.
2 Our app EasyMail won't run.

Both the modem and EasyMail had been working for a couple years, and both
seemed to quit working at the same time.

The machine has two users: "Motorcycle Mike" and "Ruth the Sweet". Both
have
admin privileges. Neither can run EasyMail, except in Safe Mode. EasyMail
will run in Safe Mode from both users. In Normal mode, the hourglass
flashes
for a couple seconds and then nothing.

I can't see any new entries in the Events log after trying to start
EasyMail
in Normal Mode.

Here I have the malfunction right in front of me, and I don't know the
best
way to go at this thing.
Should I uninstall "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)"?

 

[Guest]

Steve,
Thanks for the good and prompt input. I appreciate it.

I stumbled on a new factor.
All our exe's and dll's are compressed with a compression utility (Shrinker
fron Blink inc.), after compilation and prior to putting in the installation.
We've been doing that for years to reduce the file size and to discourage
hacking and reverse engineering.

Well, I find that If we don't compress the exe and dll files, they run
normally on this XP home machine. It is only when the files are compressed
that they refuse to load.

They have been running compressed on this machine for about two years, but
something has changed so that these compressed executables will not start.

I sent a message to the utility maker and made some new installations with
un-compressed executables to send to the affected users.

I hope that somebody can fix it so we can continue to compress these files.
If you have any ideas, or hear of anything, I'd really appreciate your
letting me know.
--
Chuck
Home Plan Software
-------------------------------------------

What I would do if possible is to first make an image of that computer with
something like Norton Ghost so that no matter what you do you can get the
computer back to the original state for a quick restore because it will
become difficult to track things down as you make changes and try things.

You can uninstall the update though I have to wonder if it is related since
it was installed a couple months ago unless the problem happened right after
that. Since the application works in safe mode that tells me there is a
problem with a startup service, application [including malware/spyware], or
maybe even a driver. You can use msconfig to do selective startup of the
operating system to try and track down what service/application/driver is
causing the problem and this can be tedious because it has to be done in a
trial and error method. Look again in Add and Remove programs for any
applications that have recently been installed which could be suspect. I
would also do a full scan for malware and spyware because they can also
interfere with an application starting. AdAware SE is a pretty good spyware
program and whatever antivirus program you use be sure to use the latest
virus definitions that are up to date as of today. Trend Micro Sysclean
should be used as a second opinion for malware and it is free. You can use
Device Manager to check the status of and to test the modem. See the links
below for more details. --- Steve

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html --- AdAware SE
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp --- Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp --- virus pattern file
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434 ---
advanced clean boot troubleshooting using msconfig
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.
Through a very fortunate circumtance, I was able to get hold of a machine
that is refusing to run one of our applications. It's sitting right here
in
my office.

This machine has XP Home ver 2002 service pack 1.
On Sept 3. 2005 "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)" was installed.

The machine has two problems.
1. The Modem disappeared from Windows' notice, disabling its dialup
connection.
2 Our app EasyMail won't run.

Both the modem and EasyMail had been working for a couple years, and both
seemed to quit working at the same time.

The machine has two users: "Motorcycle Mike" and "Ruth the Sweet". Both
have
admin privileges. Neither can run EasyMail, except in Safe Mode. EasyMail
will run in Safe Mode from both users. In Normal mode, the hourglass
flashes
for a couple seconds and then nothing.

I can't see any new entries in the Events log after trying to start
EasyMail
in Normal Mode.

Here I have the malfunction right in front of me, and I don't know the
best
way to go at this thing.
Should I uninstall "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)"?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Interesting. Offhand I don't really know what the problem could be and maybe
the compression utility maker can come up with some ideas. I believe you
said that it works in Safe Mode and that is what I would look at closely
since Safe Mode success would indicate that some other process is causing
the problem. You could also try using Task Manager to start killing non
critical system process trees to see if doing that will allow the
application to start. Some virus detection, internet protection, or personal
firewalls can cause strange problems since they may block something from
running thinking it is a malicious process. Other then that I can't think of
much else. --- Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the good and prompt input. I appreciate it.

I stumbled on a new factor.
All our exe's and dll's are compressed with a compression utility
(Shrinker
fron Blink inc.), after compilation and prior to putting in the
installation.
We've been doing that for years to reduce the file size and to discourage
hacking and reverse engineering.

Well, I find that If we don't compress the exe and dll files, they run
normally on this XP home machine. It is only when the files are compressed
that they refuse to load.

They have been running compressed on this machine for about two years, but
something has changed so that these compressed executables will not start.

I sent a message to the utility maker and made some new installations with
un-compressed executables to send to the affected users.

I hope that somebody can fix it so we can continue to compress these
files.
If you have any ideas, or hear of anything, I'd really appreciate your
letting me know.
--
Chuck
Home Plan Software
-------------------------------------------

What I would do if possible is to first make an image of that computer
with
something like Norton Ghost so that no matter what you do you can get the
computer back to the original state for a quick restore because it will
become difficult to track things down as you make changes and try things.

You can uninstall the update though I have to wonder if it is related
since
it was installed a couple months ago unless the problem happened right
after
that. Since the application works in safe mode that tells me there is a
problem with a startup service, application [including malware/spyware],
or
maybe even a driver. You can use msconfig to do selective startup of the
operating system to try and track down what service/application/driver is
causing the problem and this can be tedious because it has to be done in
a
trial and error method. Look again in Add and Remove programs for any
applications that have recently been installed which could be suspect. I
would also do a full scan for malware and spyware because they can also
interfere with an application starting. AdAware SE is a pretty good
spyware
program and whatever antivirus program you use be sure to use the latest
virus definitions that are up to date as of today. Trend Micro Sysclean
should be used as a second opinion for malware and it is free. You can
use
Device Manager to check the status of and to test the modem. See the
links
below for more details. --- Steve

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html --- AdAware SE
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp --- Sysclean
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp --- virus pattern file
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434 ---
advanced clean boot troubleshooting using msconfig
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353

Steve,

Thanks for the reply.
Through a very fortunate circumtance, I was able to get hold of a
machine
that is refusing to run one of our applications. It's sitting right
here
in
my office.

This machine has XP Home ver 2002 service pack 1.
On Sept 3. 2005 "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)" was installed.

The machine has two problems.
1. The Modem disappeared from Windows' notice, disabling its dialup
connection.
2 Our app EasyMail won't run.

Both the modem and EasyMail had been working for a couple years, and
both
seemed to quit working at the same time.

The machine has two users: "Motorcycle Mike" and "Ruth the Sweet". Both
have
admin privileges. Neither can run EasyMail, except in Safe Mode.
EasyMail
will run in Safe Mode from both users. In Normal mode, the hourglass
flashes
for a couple seconds and then nothing.

I can't see any new entries in the Events log after trying to start
EasyMail
in Normal Mode.

Here I have the malfunction right in front of me, and I don't know the
best
way to go at this thing.
Should I uninstall "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)"?
--
Chuck
Home Plan Software
------------------------------------------------

:

First off I am not a programmer or developer so I could not say
exactly
what
the problem is but I would try to find some common ground with the
problem
as in did a specific event trigger it such as installation of SP2 or a
particular security update. SP2 tightened up security quite a bit
which
did
cause some applications to fail but that should not be something you
are
hearing about just now. You can use Add and Remove programs and select
show
updates to see what updates have been installed and when. I would also
check
the membership of the user who is having a problem compared to the
membership of the user that is not to see if there is a difference.
The
support tool whoami is probably best to do that with the /groups
option.
Also the logs you see with Event Viewer can show valuable information
though
you may need to enable more auditing such as privilege use, process
tracking, and object access for failure and enable auditing on all
folders/registry keys the application would use which is not a user
friendly
process. Of course you would want to duplicate the customers computer
configuration even if it means cloning their computer so you can see
firsthand what is going on and compare to installations that are not
having
the problem. SysInternals makes valuable and free tools such as
Filemon,Regmon, and Process Explorer that can track real time activity
of
an
application/operating system. Booting into Safe Mode and scanning for
malware/spyware should also be done. --- Steve


I hope someone can shed some light on a perplexing problem.
Our company has been developing and selling software for several
years.

In the last two weeks, we have had several reports from long time
users
that
our software no longer runs.
When they double-click on an exe file nothing at all happens.
If they create a new user with admin privileges, they can run the
application as that new user. This even though the previous user
had
admin
privileges.

These are XP users with sp2. I haven't been able to determine any
other
common thing that has changed on these machines.

These programs were installed over two years ago and have run fine
until
now.

What could have happen now to cause these machines to suddenly stop
running
our programs?

What can I do?