All.exe files don't run- icons default

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Guest

I turn on Windows XP pro. All the icons have reverted back to thier plain
white default windows icons, the piece of paper that's dogeared on the
corner. Clicking on any one of them gets you the message that Windows
doesn't know what program opens it, and would you like to try the web to find
it or select it from a list of programs. So I use system restore to bring
the computer back to a time when this didn't happen but even after restore
it's the same. I have to reboot again.After a few days it happens again.
Has anyone heard this happen before and what causes it and most importantly,
how I can stop it from happening again?
 
briancreilly said:
I turn on Windows XP pro. All the icons have reverted back to thier plain
white default windows icons, the piece of paper that's dogeared on the
corner. Clicking on any one of them gets you the message that Windows
doesn't know what program opens it, and would you like to try the web to find
it or select it from a list of programs. So I use system restore to bring
the computer back to a time when this didn't happen but even after restore
it's the same. I have to reboot again.After a few days it happens again.
Has anyone heard this happen before and what causes it and most importantly,
how I can stop it from happening again?
Click to expand...

Are you checking for virus infection? I repaired a machine that got hit with
a virus and was showing the same symptoms. The only way I could get any
programs to run was to boot into safe mode w/command prompt. I cleaned it up
from there and had to do a repair reinstall to fix it.
 
briancreilly said:
I turn on Windows XP pro. All the icons have reverted back to thier
plain white default windows icons, the piece of paper that's dogeared
on the
corner. Clicking on any one of them gets you the message that Windows
doesn't know what program opens it, and would you like to try the web
to find
it or select it from a list of programs. So I use system restore to
bring the computer back to a time when this didn't happen but even
after restore
it's the same. I have to reboot again.After a few days it happens
again. Has anyone heard this happen before and what causes it and most
importantly, how I can stop it from happening again?
Click to expand...

You can try MVP Doug Knox's file association fix for .exe's here:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

However, your first troubleshooting step(s) should always be to
determine that your computer is 100% virus/malware-free:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Malke
 
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