Bizarre - cannot "start run cmd"

[manny]

Don't know what happened but when I do Start | Run | cmd, XP tells me that it
cannot find cmd. This used to work.

1) First, cmd.exe is in my path (C:\WINDOWS\system32) and indeed will run at a
cmd prompt from any directory

2) If I type "cmd.exe", it does work. I can invoke any other .exe file without
using the extension (assuming, of course, that it's in the path); the problem
seems specific to cmd.

3) What's really bizarre is that if I copy cmd.exe to "whatever.exe" in the same
directory and do start run "whatever" it works.

There doesn't seem to be anything funny in HKCR\.exe or exefile.

Ideas?

thanks - manny

 

[Galen]

In manny had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Don't know what happened but when I do Start | Run | cmd, XP tells me
that it cannot find cmd. This used to work.

1) First, cmd.exe is in my path (C:\WINDOWS\system32) and indeed will
run at a cmd prompt from any directory

2) If I type "cmd.exe", it does work. I can invoke any other .exe
file without using the extension (assuming, of course, that it's in
the path); the problem seems specific to cmd.

3) What's really bizarre is that if I copy cmd.exe to "whatever.exe"
in the same directory and do start run "whatever" it works.

There doesn't seem to be anything funny in HKCR\.exe or exefile.

Ideas?

thanks - manny

Yes. Malware of various flavors do this. Task manager, regedit, etc work
okay?

Malware Cleaning:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[manny]

In manny had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

(snip)


Yes. Malware of various flavors do this. Task manager, regedit, etc work
okay?

(snip)

I logged on as another user and it worked fine. So it was something about my
main account. Turned out to be a cmd shortcut on the desktop. Don't know why it
was screwing things up, but I deleted it and start|run|cmd worked fine. Then
recreated another cmd shortcut and it still worked.

manny