Problem with exe. files

[Paul Briggs]

I use Windows XP Home Edition and a reinstallation of it
has not cured my problem.
Sometimes when I try to run a program, it just fails to
start resulting in numerous reinstalls. I eventually
found that this was because after a while the exe. files
for these programs were mysteriosly getting bigger.
e.g. the exe for GTA: Vice City grew to 4.08MB from
3.91MB.
This problem mainly affects games, though Cool Edit Pro 2
and Paintshop Pro are also affected.

I've got every Windows update and have tried patching
these programs. I've tried making sure every exe has been
read-only but this has not made any difference. I've also
tried copying the exe files while they're the correct
size, to another location so I could copy it back as
neccessary, but the copies have also increased size.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Malke]

I use Windows XP Home Edition and a reinstallation of it
has not cured my problem.
Sometimes when I try to run a program, it just fails to
start resulting in numerous reinstalls. I eventually
found that this was because after a while the exe. files
for these programs were mysteriosly getting bigger.
e.g. the exe for GTA: Vice City grew to 4.08MB from
3.91MB.
This problem mainly affects games, though Cool Edit Pro 2
and Paintshop Pro are also affected.

I've got every Windows update and have tried patching
these programs. I've tried making sure every exe has been
read-only but this has not made any difference. I've also
tried copying the exe files while they're the correct
size, to another location so I could copy it back as
neccessary, but the copies have also increased size.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

What does a scan with a current antivirus program (meaning a version not
earlier than 2002 and using updated virus definitions) show?

Malke