Not a valid Win32 appliccation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Humpty Dumpty
  • Start date Start date
H

Humpty Dumpty

In my old HP Presario Notebook when I try to install Windows Security
Essentials, I receive the following message:
"mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-xp.exe is not a valid Win32 appliccations".
I tried several ways, like saving the file and running later and stopping AV
and antyspy appliccations running, to no avail.
I don't experience any problems installing other appliccations, which I do
frequentely.
What can this be?
Thank you in advance,
Humpty
 
Humpty Dumpty said:
In my old HP Presario Notebook when I try to install Windows Security
Essentials, I receive the following message:
"mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-xp.exe is not a valid Win32 appliccations".
I tried several ways, like saving the file and running later and stopping
AV and antyspy appliccations running, to no avail.
I don't experience any problems installing other appliccations, which I do
frequentely.
What can this be?
Thank you in advance,
Humpty
Click to expand...

Sounds like the file is corrupted.
 
The computer's already infected so you won't be able to install MSE or any
other AV app now.

Back-up any personal data (none of which should be considered 100%
trustworthy at this point) then do a format & clean install of Windows.
Please note that a Repair Install (AKA in-place upgrade) will NOT fix this!

cf. http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps

After the clean install, you'll have the equivalent of a "new computer" so
take care of everything on the following page before otherwise connecting
the machine to the internet or a network and before using a USB key that
isn't brand-new or hasn't been freshly formatted:

5 steps to help protect your new computer before you go online
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/xppc.mspx

Other helpful references include:

HOW TO get a computer running WinXP Gold (no Service Packs) fully patched
(after a clean install)
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsupdate/msg/3f5afa8ed33e121c

HOW TO get a computer running WinXP SP1(a) or SP2 fully patched (after a
clean install)
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/msg/a066ae41add7dd2b

Also see:

Steps To Help Prevent Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/security/spyware/prevent.aspx

Steps to Help Prevent Computer Worms
http://www.microsoft.com/security/worms/prevent.aspx

Avoid Rogue Security Software!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/rogue.aspx
 
I've had Avast! and Adaware running for a long time, including real time
monitoring. Also automatically updated with the latest virus and spyware DB.
I find it hard to believe that the computer is infected.
As the computer is working all right except for this single matter, I prefer
not to install at this stage WSE and continue using the previous mentioned
applications.
But if you think there may be another reason for this misbehaviour than an
infection, please tell me.
Thank you,
Humpty
 
In my old HP Presario Notebook when I try to install Windows Security
Essentials, I receive the following message:
"mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-xp.exe is not a valid Win32 appliccations".
I tried several ways, like saving the file and running later and stoppingAV
and antyspy appliccations running, to no avail.
I don't experience any problems installing other appliccations, which I do
frequentely.
What can this be?
Thank  you in advance,
Humpty
Click to expand...

Expand your scanning software horizons. There are other scanners with
better reputations that those you listed.

Any scanning tool form MS is not even on my list of scanning. MS is
not in the malicious software detection/removal business and only care
about a limited list of files that are important to them. You should
stick with tools from the detection/removal experts where that is
their only business.

To have the expectation that one or more scanning tools knows
everything about every kind of infection is naive and that expectation
exceeds reality.

One of the things malware will do is prevent you from running things
that can be used to detect and remove it. It recognizes the names of
some installation and running processes and prevents them from
running. That may not be your issue here but it is well known fact.

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

If your .exe file still will not launch, rename it to something else
(humpty.exe) and then try to launch it. If it still won't run, then
continue troubleshooting.

It does not make sense to troubleshoot an issue on a system that might
be infected.
 
Avast, yes, it was installed during the attempt to run WSE setup, but I
disabled on access protection.
Ad-Aware, I uninstalled completely prior to running WSE setup.
I must remark that the same procedure I used with my desktop computer and
there weren't any problems.
Humpty
 
You must have only one (1) anti-virus application installed and loading at
boot. With your current set-up, chances are that NEITHER of them have been
fully-protecting your computer and you may be seeing the effects of a
hijackware infection.
 
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