Exe files appear as dos programs

  • Thread starter Thread starter joe_g99
  • Start date Start date
J

joe_g99

Hi,

I recently had to re-install my version of XP, so I put all the
programs I wanted to install on my d drive and went ahead with the
install, after installing windows said something about the data on d:
been corrupt and went about some sort of automatic recovery, now I can
access all the text files that were there, but it thinks any file with
a .exe extension is a command line program which opens and closes
imediatly instead of running properly, if I right click it all of the
properties are the same as for a command line program to. Has anyone
encountered this problem or does anyone know how I can make these
programs runs as application instead of a dos program.

Joe.
 
Open a command prompt and drag one of the files into it, then press enter.
Read the message.

If it says "the file is too big to fit into memory" it has been corupted.

Regards
Mark Dormer
 
Hi,

I recently had to re-install my version of XP, so I put all the
programs I wanted to install on my d drive and went ahead with the
install, after installing windows said something about the data on d:
been corrupt and went about some sort of automatic recovery, now I can
access all the text files that were there, but it thinks any file with
a .exe extension is a command line program which opens and closes
imediatly instead of running properly, if I right click it all of the
properties are the same as for a command line program to. Has anyone
encountered this problem or does anyone know how I can make these
programs runs as application instead of a dos program.

Joe.
Click to expand...
If these programs were installed to the old system, you must install them on
the new system using the installation media. Just copying the programs
themselves to another folder will not suffice.

In this case, you must use the installation media for each of the programs
to install the programs in the new operating system.
Jim
 
It may be that the programs are corrupt. Windows looks at the header of an
..exe to see if it is a GUI or DOS program, and treats it accordingly.

However, it might also be that the 'association' for the .exe extension in
the registry has been altered. This might've happened before the repair
install, and is sometimes done by Trojans to 'hook' the launch of an
executable.

Acid test is whether .exes in the Windows folder itself (or Program Files)
will run OK, or not. If Notepad runs OK when launched from Explorer or a
commandprompt (Instead of its startmenu item) then the OS is pretty-much OK,
and the problem is on the D: drive.
 
Thanks for all the replies, I was actually just been really thick, the
exe I wanted to install was the drivers for my graphics card etc, of
course the motherboard and IDE drivers were on this as well, daft of me
to put it on D: really!
 
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