maybe a corrupt NTUSER.DAT file -- Maybe Not

L

luv2bike2

OS: Windows XP, SP3, current on MS Updates

The system was attack with malware yesterday, the antivirus software did not
detect it before it did the damage and did not detect it when i did a manual
scan (the antivirus software that is installed is not my choice, I never
liked this particular antivirus software--anyway...) I ran Malwarebytes as
Administrator on the system and it found 7 issues, clean them up and
rebooted. I was able to get into MS Office products (2003) with no problem.
I had the user log in the system and when the user went to open up Excel or
Word or Outlook, we got the box that says open with..... of course Office
products were not included in the list so we browsed to the dircetory where
Office products are and click on the exe file, we received an error message,
"application not found".

I was able to open Office products when i was logged in as administrator.
Weird, so I uninstalled Office (as administrator) installed Office (as
administrator), got all the MS Office updates. i was able to access the
Office software as administrator again, so i had the user log in and the user
is still having problems. The other weird thing is, if the user clicks on a
Word document Word will open up, same with Excel, but click on the EXE is
when we get the error message that the program is not found. If we click on
the shortcut for IE in the quick launch we get the Open with box, however if
we click on IE on the Desktop it opens up. I am assuming that the NTUSER.DAT
file is corrupt. Does it sound like that is the case? if it is the case, is
there a way I can "repair" it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
 
P

Pegasus [MVP]

luv2bike2 said:
OS: Windows XP, SP3, current on MS Updates

The system was attack with malware yesterday, the antivirus software did
not
detect it before it did the damage and did not detect it when i did a
manual
scan (the antivirus software that is installed is not my choice, I never
liked this particular antivirus software--anyway...) I ran Malwarebytes as
Administrator on the system and it found 7 issues, clean them up and
rebooted. I was able to get into MS Office products (2003) with no
problem.
I had the user log in the system and when the user went to open up Excel
or
Word or Outlook, we got the box that says open with..... of course Office
products were not included in the list so we browsed to the dircetory
where
Office products are and click on the exe file, we received an error
message,
"application not found".

I was able to open Office products when i was logged in as administrator.
Weird, so I uninstalled Office (as administrator) installed Office (as
administrator), got all the MS Office updates. i was able to access the
Office software as administrator again, so i had the user log in and the
user
is still having problems. The other weird thing is, if the user clicks on
a
Word document Word will open up, same with Excel, but click on the EXE is
when we get the error message that the program is not found. If we click
on
the shortcut for IE in the quick launch we get the Open with box, however
if
we click on IE on the Desktop it opens up. I am assuming that the
NTUSER.DAT
file is corrupt. Does it sound like that is the case? if it is the case,
is
there a way I can "repair" it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

You can easily find out if ntuser.dat has been corrupted: Log on under a
different account, then see if the problem persists. Since each account has
its own ntuser.dat, this will tell you if the problem is caused by this
file. If it is corrupted then it is unlikely that you can fix it - you would
have to know where exactly the damage occurred. You would now have to use
the new account and it to suit your requirements.
 
J

Jose

OS: Windows XP, SP3, current on MS Updates

The system was attack with malware yesterday, the antivirus software did not
detect it before it did the damage and did not detect it when i did a manual
scan (the antivirus software that is installed is not my choice, I never
liked this particular antivirus software--anyway...) I ran Malwarebytes as
Administrator on the system and it found 7 issues, clean them up and
rebooted.  I was able to get into MS Office products (2003) with no problem.  
I had the user log in the system and when the user went to open up Excel or
Word or Outlook, we got the box that says open with..... of course Office
products were not included in the list so we browsed to the dircetory where
Office products are and click on the exe file, we received an error message,
"application not found".  

I was able to open Office products when i was logged in as administrator. 
Weird, so I uninstalled Office (as administrator) installed Office (as
administrator), got all the MS Office updates.  i was able to access the
Office software as administrator again, so i had the user log in and the user
is still having problems. The other weird thing is, if the user clicks ona
Word document Word will open up, same with Excel, but click on the EXE is
when we get the error message that the program is not found.  If we click on
the shortcut for IE in the quick launch we get the Open with box, howeverif
we click on IE on the Desktop it opens up.  I am assuming that the NTUSER.DAT
file is corrupt.  Does it sound like that is the case?  if it is the case, is
there a way I can "repair" it?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

How about the malware merely afflicted the file associations? It
really only does things like this to annoy you... I am inventing a
new word - annoyingware.

This happens so often that somebody made an easy fix a long time ago
just to restore the EXE file associations.

Go to this WWW site by Doug Knox:

http://www.dougknox.com/

On the left, click the Win XP Fixes, File Association Fixes and read
the directions at the top of the page.

Download the EXE File Association Fix and apply it, then reboot.
 
L

luv2bike2

yes i have logged in as a different user (myself--administrator) and i can
open up word and excel etc... so my assumation would be correct than... that
it is the ntuser.dat file i corrupt. :(

the problem i have now is that i can not rename the user name in docs and
settings so that i can create a new ntuser.dat for the user. when i try to
rename the folder it tells me i do not have permission or that the file is
being used by another user blah blah... even though i am logged in as a
network administrator and even when i log on as the local administrator to
the system.
 
L

luv2bike2

Jose!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!
This worked for me. You are a life saver! actually you and Doug Knox!!!!
 
J

Jose

Jose!!!  Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!
This worked for me.  You are a life saver!  actually you and Doug Knox!!!!

Well, there you go.

Poor ntuser.dat... so misunderstood.
 

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