services.exe has disappeared

[chrisophos]

Hmm...The last two times I have logged in to an account on my computer
while it is loading my settings it errors and pops up like 5 messages
saying it cannot find/load/run services.exe
(http://img111.echo.cx/img111/1377/pic1wg.jpg <--error messages) and I
checked to make sure it hadn’t somehow gotten renamed or what not by
accident and there is no services.anything in the windows folder.
I do however have "services" of some type that maybe could have been
moved,screwed up in these folders:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC (this is just called a "file" it
doesn’t have .exe and isn’t an application)

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 (services.exe)

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 (services.exe & services.msc)

C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch (SERVICES.EXE-1ACE4073.pf ???????)

C:\WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$ (services.exe)

C:\I386 (services.exe,services.msc, and another one that is just
called "file")

And i think that’s all...so if someone could tell me if i accidently
moved something to a folder it shouldn’t be or maybe took off the file
extension by accident or if its screwed up i’d be very appreciative,
and hopefully spared from the choping block. Also if is lost,gone is
there a way i can get it back without a system restore or whatever,
because i don’t wanna lose some of my recent things..

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

The legitimate services.exe will be present in the %Windir%\System32 folder,
and it does NOT load from the startup RUN keys. The entry that you have is
probably added by a virus / malware. In most cases, an anti-virus tool will
delete the Viral file but leave the startup entry unmodified.

You need to edit the registry and remove the services.exe entry from RUN
startup. If not, use the msconfig.exe utility to uncheck the offending entry
from Windows Startup. Follow-up with a complete malware scan.

--
Ramesh Srinivasan
MS-MVP, Windows Shell

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com