HELP Prefetch problem, maybe?

[Richard Rhooms]

Hi

I had a unidentified virus on my pc and removed it by
trial and error. I then noticed it had a file in the
\windows\prefetch directory WNPRT32.EXE and deleted it.
Now any time I try and run any installed program or try
to re-install the programs I get the "open with" box with
the list of programs to select, then it just keeps going
round in a circle.

But programs like internet explorer and microsoft outlook
still work but WORD does not, it comes up
with "application error".

I have done a clean install to make it multi boot, but it
does not have the same WNPRT32.EXE in the prefetch
directory. And I have upgraded to SP2, but to no avail.
But when it was updating I got the error with
regsvr32.dll/exe(?) But it did complete.

Does anyone know how to correct this problem? I really
dont want to restart from scratch.

Thanks in advance,
Richard Rhooms

 

[Alex Nichol]

I had a unidentified virus on my pc and removed it by
trial and error. I then noticed it had a file in the
\windows\prefetch directory WNPRT32.EXE and deleted it.
Now any time I try and run any installed program or try
to re-install the programs I get the "open with" box with
the list of programs to select, then it just keeps going
round in a circle.

But programs like internet explorer and microsoft outlook
still work but WORD does not, it comes up
with "application error".

You had a virus that has inserted itself into the file association for
..exe files, so it got run instead, before handing on to the proper
program, It had hidden itself there, and you deleted it so the
association is now 'orphaned'

Go to
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/xp_fixes.html
and near the bottom on the left, File Association fixes. Use the
scripts it gives to restore things