msconfig fails to run

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Guest

My machine has msconfig.exe in the correct location -
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries, but neither double-clicking it nor
typing msconfig in Run does anything.

Nothing shows up on the screen and as far as I can tell Event Viewer doesn't
show any record of an attempt to run msconfig either. Can anyone tell me how
to fix this?

Is there a way to reinstall msconfig?
 
mush said:
My machine has msconfig.exe in the correct location -
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries, but neither double-clicking it nor
typing msconfig in Run does anything.

Nothing shows up on the screen and as far as I can tell Event Viewer doesn't
show any record of an attempt to run msconfig either. Can anyone tell me how
to fix this?

Is there a way to reinstall msconfig?
Click to expand...

Start by scanning your PC for viruses, using an up-to-date
virus scanner.
 
My machine has msconfig.exe in the correct location -
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries, but neither double-clicking it nor
typing msconfig in Run does anything.

Nothing shows up on the screen and as far as I can tell Event Viewer doesn't
show any record of an attempt to run msconfig either. Can anyone tell me how
to fix this?

Is there a way to reinstall msconfig?
Click to expand...


Msconfig - Corrupt: For Windows XP

To extract: Open a command prompt window. (Start, Run, cmd.exe)
Insert your XP CD into the drive and enter the following command:
(Where "X:" is your cd-rom) (Copy & Paste to prevent syntax errors)

EXPAND -R X:\I386\MSCONFIG.EX_ C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\BINARIES
This will extract a new copy of the MSCONFIG.EXE from the CD.

If you don't have the CD, download the file from here:
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads/msconfig.zip
Unzip the file and save it in "C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\BINARIES"
 
Unk said:
Msconfig - Corrupt: For Windows XP

To extract: Open a command prompt window. (Start, Run, cmd.exe)
Insert your XP CD into the drive and enter the following command:
(Where "X:" is your cd-rom) (Copy & Paste to prevent syntax errors)

EXPAND -R X:\I386\MSCONFIG.EX_ C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\BINARIES
This will extract a new copy of the MSCONFIG.EXE from the CD.

If you don't have the CD, download the file from here:
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads.html
http://www.thetechguide.com/downloads/msconfig.zip
Unzip the file and save it in "C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\BINARIES"
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, re-extracting msconfig.exe from my SP2 CD didn't help.
Neither did replacing msconfig.exe from the website that you mentioned. Both
replacements of msconfig.exe showed exactly the same behavior - i.e. -
nothing happens.

I scanned my system with Symantec AV which found nothing. Between them,
Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta1), Spybot S&D and AdAware found 1 adware and a
handful of cookies. I used the latest definitions for each of these tools and
deleted all the flagged adware and cookies.

msconfig still does not work. I'd appreciate any further ideas on how to fix
this. Thanks.
 
mush said:
Unfortunately, re-extracting msconfig.exe from my SP2 CD didn't help.
Neither did replacing msconfig.exe from the website that you mentioned. Both
replacements of msconfig.exe showed exactly the same behavior - i.e. -
nothing happens.

I scanned my system with Symantec AV which found nothing. Between them,
Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta1), Spybot S&D and AdAware found 1 adware and a
handful of cookies. I used the latest definitions for each of these tools and
deleted all the flagged adware and cookies.

msconfig still does not work. I'd appreciate any further ideas on how to fix
this. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I dealt with a post a few days ago that reported a similar
problem. In that case the machine had a virus infection
and the virus targeted certain file names. The OP became
aware of it when he renamed the problem files, so perhaps
temporarily renaming ipconfig.exe to xxxyyy.exe will give
you a clue.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
I dealt with a post a few days ago that reported a similar
problem. In that case the machine had a virus infection
and the virus targeted certain file names. The OP became
aware of it when he renamed the problem files, so perhaps
temporarily renaming ipconfig.exe to xxxyyy.exe will give
you a clue.
Click to expand...

Renaming msconfig.exe to anything else causes a replacement copy of
msconfig.exe to appear almost immediately. Is this normal behavior?
 
mush said:
Renaming msconfig.exe to anything else causes a replacement copy of
msconfig.exe to appear almost immediately. Is this normal behavior?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's normal. You must now invoke xxxyyy.exe to
complete the test.
 
Yes, that's normal. You must now invoke xxxyyy.exe to
complete the test.
Click to expand...

I'd tried as soon as I renamed it and it doesn't work. I tried copying over
msconfig.exe, msconf.dll and the mfcxx.dll's from a XP pro machine that does
have a working msconfig and that didn't help either.

Does anyone here know what dlls or other support files msconfig needs in
order to work?

Thanks.
 
Some additional info. I have 2 drives - one is NTFS and the other is
(purposely) FAT32.

The current install of xp pro was done over a 98 install and the drive on
which the intall was performed was imaged over to another larger drive (the
original install drive is no longer in my system so I only have one boot
drive). Don't know if any of this helps, but I thought I'd put it out just in
case.
 
mush said:
Some additional info. I have 2 drives - one is NTFS and the other is
(purposely) FAT32.

The current install of xp pro was done over a 98 install and the drive on
which the intall was performed was imaged over to another larger drive (the
original install drive is no longer in my system so I only have one boot
drive). Don't know if any of this helps, but I thought I'd put it out just in
case.
Click to expand...

You could try to run sfc.exe (System File Checker).

I am not enthusiastic about upgrades from a 16-bit OS to a
32-bit OS. I have seen some weird and wonderful problems
resulting from this. If at all possible then I will do a clean
installation of WinXP. Remember that Win98 and WinXP
are radically different beasts and the upgrade needs to make
lots of guesses and compromises. Perhaps your problem is
the result of a compromise gone wrong.
 
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