Application Not Found errors

[andy]

Hi All. I'm new to these boards. I am encountering an issue on my parent's
machine that I can not resolve. The machine is a DELL running Win XP with
all the latest patches. Today if I try to run a MS Office application (Word,
Excel, etc) I get the error "Application Not Found". If I try to run McAfee
Security Center I get a pop up asking me to "Choose the program you want to
use to open this file:" But none of them are the right programs. If I try
to access Control Panel and run any application like click on Add Or Remove
Programs I get the error c:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe Application Not
Found. But the file rundll32 is in that folder. I saw it in Windows
explorer.

I'm not sure what could have happened to the machine. Maybe a virus? Has
enyone encountered a similar issue before? I'm not sure what changed but if
I can not fix it, is there a way I can restore the settings on the machine as
they were a week ago so at least my control panel applications work? Did the
registry get messed up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in
advance.

 

[bojimbo26one]

Hi All. I'm new to these boards. I am encountering an issue on my parent's
machine that I can not resolve. The machine is a DELL running Win XP with
all the latest patches. Today if I try to run a MS Office application (Word,
Excel, etc) I get the error "Application Not Found". If I try to run McAfee
Security Center I get a pop up asking me to "Choose the program you want to
use to open this file:" But none of them are the right programs. If I try
to access Control Panel and run any application like click on Add Or Remove
Programs I get the error c:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe Application Not
Found. But the file rundll32 is in that folder. I saw it in Windows
explorer.

I'm not sure what could have happened to the machine. Maybe a virus? Has
enyone encountered a similar issue before? I'm not sure what changed but if
I can not fix it, is there a way I can restore the settings on the machine as
they were a week ago so at least my control panel applications work? Did the
registry get messed up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in
advance.

I would suggest uninstall McAfee SC and use a different firewall and
antivirus .

 

[Gerry]

Andy

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[andy]

Thanks Gerry. I've pasted an error and warning log below. I'm not sure if
it points to anything useful but please let me know.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 1/27/2008
Time: 4:10:56 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JOEKNAN
Description:
Hanging application pspa.exe, version 4.0.0.3, hang module hungapp, version
0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 70 73 70 61 2e 65 pspa.e
0018: 78 65 20 34 2e 30 2e 30 xe 4.0.0
0020: 2e 33 20 69 6e 20 68 75 .3 in hu
0028: 6e 67 61 70 70 20 30 2e ngapp 0.
0030: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 61 74 0.0.0 at
0038: 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 offset
0040: 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 00000000

-------------

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Microsoft Fax
Event Category: Initialization/Termination
Event ID: 32068
Date: 1/27/2008
Time: 2:50:24 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JOEKNAN
Description:
The outgoing routing rule is not valid because it cannot find a valid
device. The outgoing faxes that use this rule will not be routed. Verify that
the targeted device or devices (if routed to a group of devices) is connected
and installed correctly, and turned on. If routed to a group, verify that the
group is configured correctly. Country/region code: '*' Area code: '*'

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[Gerry]

Andy

They do not point to the problem you are complaining about.


--
~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[andy]

Is it possible that any application file that is an executable has lost its
file association? It seems like the computer does not know how to open or
run .exe files.

 

[Elmo]

Is it possible that any application file that is an executable has lost its
file association? It seems like the computer does not know how to open or
run .exe files.

Try the .exe repair here:
Fix File Associations.
http://dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

 

[Elmo]

I just wanted to confirm that Doug Knox's fix worked for me, since no
one else bothered to take the time to confirm this fix.

IF THE PROBLEM SEEMS TO BE THAT WINDOWS DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO OR HOW
TO OPEN .EXE FILES, THEN THIS IS THE FIX FOR YOU!

Thanks Joe (Elmo) for posting this fix!

Great news! Thanks for reporting your success.