Unable to run any programs - XP

[Help]

Hi,

My neighbour's Windows/XP SP2 (XP Home) machine seems to have got itself
into a state.

When any of the user accounts are selected, all the desktop icons are
just plain windows icons and double clicking on any has no effect.
There are no programs listed in the Start Programs list
If I try to run anything using Start-Run then I get the error:
"Windows cannot open this file:"
File: filename.exe
To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it.
Windows can go online to look it up automatically ...." etcetc I am sure
you all know the one.

If I start up in safe mode I get the same.

However, I can run in Safe mode with command prompt and can run things
from there, including regedit. There are a couple of items in
HKLM/.../run which I removed that were odd, but the problem persists.

They use Symantec firewall and norton Liveupdate and it updates each
Friday night.

I will do a scan tomorrow to see if anything shows up (I couldn't today
cos I don't know the Norton commandline format.).

The PC was used during the day yesterday and, just before it was
rebooted, they choose the automatic cleanup option from Windows/XP.

Any suggestions, advice, possible virus/trojans with these symptoms
would be appreciated ..

Thanks

G.

 

[Kelly]

For starters:

EXE and LNK Fix for Windows XP - Line 12
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

To use the Regedit: Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it
and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by
right clicking on the file and selecting Edit.

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com