Notepad gone..reinstall?

[Brandon]

Strange happenings, somehow, notepad is gone from my system. It still
appears in start/programs/accessories, but when I click on it, I get
nothing. I HAD a .txt document on my desktop that I created with notepad
and recently tried to open it, I was told then that notepad.exe did not
exist.
I have gone to add/remove/windows components and to Microsoft knowledge base
and cant seem to find out how to recover or reinstall notepad.

suggestions?
Thanks

 

[José Gallardo]

Try this: Put your XP CD in the drive. Then Start>Run and type without quotes "cmd". On the new screen type (always without quotes) "D:" and hit <Enter> and then "cd i386" and hit <Enter> Then:
"expand notepad.ex_ d:\windows\notepad.exe" hit <Enter> and then "exit" and hit <Enter>.

 

[Drew Tognola]

Brandon,

Do an 'Advanced' search of notepad.exe. There should be backup copies of
notepad.exe at several other locations, for example, at
C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache. Copy & paste notepad.exe back into
C:\WINDOWS\system32. Overwrite if asked.

Drew

Strange happenings, somehow, notepad is gone from my system. It still
appears in start/programs/accessories, but when I click on it, I get
nothing. I HAD a .txt document on my desktop that I created with notepad
and recently tried to open it, I was told then that notepad.exe did not
exist.
I have gone to add/remove/windows components and to Microsoft knowledge base
and cant seem to find out how to recover or reinstall notepad.

suggestions?
Thanks

 

[Malke]

Brandon,

Do an 'Advanced' search of notepad.exe. There should be backup copies
of notepad.exe at several other locations, for example, at
C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache. Copy & paste notepad.exe back into
C:\WINDOWS\system32. Overwrite if asked.

Drew

Strange happenings, somehow, notepad is gone from my system. It still
appears in start/programs/accessories, but when I click on it, I get
nothing. I HAD a .txt document on my desktop that I created with
notepad and recently tried to open it, I was told then that
notepad.exe did not exist.
I have gone to add/remove/windows components and to Microsoft
knowledge base and cant seem to find out how to recover or reinstall
notepad.

In addition to the good suggestions you got as to how to replace
Notepad, please scan your system with a current version (not earlier
than 2004) antivirus using updated definitions. Notepad disappearing
can be symptomatic of virus infection.

Malke

 

[Brandon]

In addition to the good suggestions you got as to how to replace
Notepad, please scan your system with a current version (not earlier
than 2004) antivirus using updated definitions. Notepad disappearing
can be symptomatic of virus infection.

Malke

Hmm, this is interesting, i did a search for notepad.exe and what i found
was the following...
notepad in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe5996.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
NOTEPAD.EXE-2DAE2DE6.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
NOTEPAD.EXE-2F2D61E1.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
notepad.exe.tcf in C:\WINDOWS\system32

AND when i click on the properties of notepad in start/programs/accessories
ther targer is listed as...
C:\WINDOWS\system32\actmovie.exe


I run AVG free edition that updates/scans scans on a daily basis. It has
caught a number of virii on this failry new system.
I also run spysweeper and a-squared.
I also recently tested a program called TrojanHunter, which after doing a
searchg for .tcf extension i have found is the culprit for those( it renames
those files it disables with the .tcf extension.)

SO i assume that then, i can copy the "good" notepad in C:\WINDOWS to the
windows\sytem32 folder the redirect the shortcut to IT. THen i can safely
delete the tcf files.

Thanks
Brandon

 

[Brandon]

In addition to the good suggestions you got as to how to replace
Notepad, please scan your system with a current version (not earlier
than 2004) antivirus using updated definitions. Notepad disappearing
can be symptomatic of virus infection.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

Hmm, this is interesting, I did a search for notepad.exe and what I found
was the following...
notepad in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe5996.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
NOTEPAD.EXE-2DAE2DE6.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
NOTEPAD.EXE-2F2D61E1.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
notepad.exe.tcf in C:\WINDOWS\system32

AND when I click on the properties of notepad in start/programs/accessories
the target is listed as...
C:\WINDOWS\system32\actmovie.exe


I run AVG free edition that updates/scans on a daily basis. It has
caught a number of virii on this fairly new system.
I also run spysweeper and a-squared.
I also recently tested a program called TrojanHunter, which after doing a
search for .tcf extension I have found is the culprit for those( it renames
those files it disables with the .tcf extension.)

SO I assume that then, I can copy the "good" notepad in C:\WINDOWS to the
windows\system32 folder the redirect the shortcut to IT. Then I can safely
delete the tcf files.

Thanks
Brandon

 

[Malke]

Hmm, this is interesting, I did a search for notepad.exe and what I
found was the following...
notepad in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
notepad.exe5996.tcf in C:\WINDOWS
NOTEPAD.EXE-2DAE2DE6.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
NOTEPAD.EXE-2F2D61E1.pf in C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
notepad.exe.tcf in
C:\WINDOWS\system32

AND when I click on the properties of notepad in
start/programs/accessories the target is listed as...
C:\WINDOWS\system32\actmovie.exe


I run AVG free edition that updates/scans on a daily basis. It has
caught a number of virii on this fairly new system.
I also run spysweeper and a-squared.
I also recently tested a program called TrojanHunter, which after
doing a search for .tcf extension I have found is the culprit for
those( it renames those files it disables with the .tcf extension.)

SO I assume that then, I can copy the "good" notepad in C:\WINDOWS to
the windows\system32 folder the redirect the shortcut to IT. Then I
can safely delete the tcf files.

It would seem so, Brandon. I've never used TrojanHunter and I don't know
why it would rename Notepad, but Notepad should always just be just
plain Notepad.exe. You should have the two copies of it, one in C
\Windows and one in C:\Windows\System32.

Malke

 

[Brandon]

It would seem so, Brandon. I've never used TrojanHunter and I don't know
why it would rename Notepad, but Notepad should always just be just
plain Notepad.exe. You should have the two copies of it, one in C
\Windows and one in C:\Windows\System32.

Very good, what are the copies in "prefetch"?
Brandon

 

[Malke]

Very good, what are the copies in "prefetch"?
Brandon

Simply, the items in Prefetch aren't actually the items themselves.
Prefetch helps make the system faster. Here is Microsoft's explanation
of Prefetch: http://tinyurl.com/6l7qk

Malke

 

[Brandon]

Very good, thanks for the link.
Thanks for help.
Brandon