Win32 Applications

[Ben Stevenson]

I have XP Home and IE6.
Nowadays when I try to download programs from reputable sites, after the
download is over, I get told in the pop-up window that it is not a valid
win32 application.
What could be wrong?
TIA

 

[Xandros]

There could be file corruption occurring during the download.

 

[Ben Stevenson]

Thanks for your response.

So is there anything I can do about it, as it is happening a little too
often?
Thanks

 

[Singapore Web Design]

Hello,

It can also be bad RAM - test your memory using Memtest86+
http://www.memtest.org/

--
Singapore Web Design
http://www.bootstrike.com/Webdesign/
Singapore Web Hosting
http://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html
Windows XP FAQ

 

[Xandros]

could be flaky RAM or could be crappy network connection. Hard to say.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

I think the answers suggesting bad RAM are so bad they should not even be
posted.

I often download using Internet Explorer and most of the time the download
has problems such as you describe. Yesterday I also got the message you
describe. I did post a message in a more appropriate newsgroup; it was
months ago, a couple of months after IE 7 was released. The reaction I got
was that I was being ridiculous, similar to what you are getting. I always
try more than once and sometimes it finally works but most of the time IE
does not download properly. Usually the problem is that the downloaded file
is incomplete.

I am nearly always succssful downloading using wget, which is a free
download utility but it is very cumbersome to use. It is a console
(command-line) utility. Probably the only time that wget is unsuccessful is
when the file being downloaded is no good.

So I suggest looking for file download utility. I suppose that FTP programs
should work but they are also cumbersome to use for simply downloading. As I
say, I use wget but I don't recommend it simply because it is difficult to
use, but it works great otherwise. I am interested in lokking for something
else but I have not taken the time to do that.

I don't know how to get Microsoft to listen but I have had problems with IE
downloading for years; it existed before IE 7. I have had problems with a
totally different system also; one that I access using Terminal Services. It
is bizarre to me that it happens to me as much as it does yet not to others.
I believe you that it is happening to you and that it is likely a bug in IE.

 

[Xandros]

I think the answers suggesting bad RAM are so bad they should not even be
posted.

hahaha what a twit. You're 2 vowels away from being useful.

 

[Gerry]

Ben

What exactly is your version of Windows XP?

When you download try the option to Save to Disk. Go offline and try to
install.

If this doesn't work please advise details of your anti-virus,
anti-spyare programmes and firewall. Can you also give examples of
software, which fails to install?

Is Windows Update working correctly and all updates installing.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Sam Hobbs]

hahaha what a twit. You're 2 vowels away from being useful.

Note that I don't use language such as that. I did however expect a response
such as this but I posted my comment anyway because I consider my comment to
be a necessity. I will leave judgement to be made by Ben Stevenson, the
person we are trying to help.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

I am not Ben Stevenson but in case it helps, I have had the problem also and
it occurs regardlous of whatever antivirus software I use. I have had at
least three different brands of antivirus and firewall software. I have had
the problem when I was not using an active (only passive scan) anti-spyware
software.

I am currently using Panda 2008 antivirus and firewall and it seems to also
be disallowing spyware cookies but I installed Panda within two months ago.
Before Panda I was using Norton but the problem occured long before I used
Norton. One possibility might be that there is a remnant of an antivirus
software still lingering somewhere but if so it is neither Panda nor Norton.

An example of software that does not download is the Silverlight software
that the MSDN site is trying to get me to use. When I try to download it
using the button in the flash window, the download is completed but when I
try to execute the exe I get the message described in the original question
of this thread.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

Have you ever installed and also uninstalled Zone Alarm or Zinio? If you
don't know what they are then let's assume they are not relevant.

I think everyone is less likely to have installed Zinio and Zinio is less
likely to be a problem. If anyone has installed and also uninstalled Zinio
then they might have peices lingering in their system (I did) and some
consider it to be spyware.

I also had a peice of Zone Alarm in my system eventhough I uninstalled it a
long time ago, maybe as long as five years ago. Their True Vectors DLL was
still in my system and being loaded by my system. I have removed it but I
have not tried downloads yet but I think that little pest was the cause of
some of my problems.

I used the Microsoft SysInternals's autoruns to find those.