Windows XP Data Execution Prevention problem

[quaf_man_dan]

hi,



first off in case it matters my rig is:

ASUS M2N68-CM

AMD

Athlon 64 Socket AM2 LE-1640 (2.6GHz)

Crucial 1GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix

7600GT gfx card (can't remember brand off hand)

Win XP Pro SP2





just had a problem with my PC last night, was clearing up my desktop and (due to a dodgy mouse button) accidentaly double clicked on an .exe file (was a setup for a utility to tell me details of an avi). As soon as I had done this I had a window pop up that I hadn't seen before:



Data Execution Prevention

to help protect your computer windows has closed this program

Name: windows explorer

Publisher: Microsoft corporation



when this happened the taskbar/start menu/all desktop items disappeared and didn't come back, the firefox windows I had open worked still and I could alt-tab between them fine, just not do anything else much.



I restarted through task manager, however once the PC booted up again I quickly realised this appears to be happening for any and all .exe I try to run....



checked in control panel and DEM is set to essential Windows programs and services only.



haven't really got much of a clue about DEM so thought I'd ask here and see if anyone has any ideas.



Cheers,



Dan

 

[Madxgraphics]

Hi Dan
Welcome to the forum

Here's a link about DEP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352
I'd suggest foing a system restore to a time beforeyou double clicked this program, then go and remove it . Run your AV to see if you have picked up a virus or the like..

 

[quaf_man_dan]

hey, sorry took so long to get back to you - family illness has left little time for sorting the PC....

tried to do a system restore and got as far as selecting the date for the restore and hitting OK, then got a dialogue box that said

"system restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer, and then run system restore again."

so I restarted went into the start menu to do retry the restore but as soon as I hit system restore got the same message.

Also while it still won't let me run any .exe setup files .exe files that were already installed are working fine. Additionally my task bar/start menu etc now looks like windows 95 for some reason....


edit 29/6 - problem has been resolved; thank you avast AV