Windows cannot find this file?!

[Blue Sky]

Alright, I'm having a problem with my pc, and was wondering if any guru's out there could help me out.

Whenever I click on a exe or shortcut to an exe (say wordpad), my OS (XP) tells me it can't find the file. But if I click on a document, it will load it just fine. Also, if I right click the exe, choose run as, and then unclick the little security warning box, it will run fine.

Any helpers? Please?

 

[Usurper]

Sounds like your security level is limited. Is your login profile an administrator? If not, try making it one. Go to the control panel and look under User Accounts. It's pretty self-explanatory from there.

 

[Blue Sky]

Nope, I'm an admin. I'm even having this problem when I click on user accounts, though, now that you mention it.

 

[Dismas]

It sounds like a registry corruption of some sort, or the side effects of a virus or virus removal, where a virus has added itself to the call so that when you start and exe file it calls the virus first then the application.

Not sure of the exact location on XP, but on 2000 if you go to the regsitry and go to HKEY_CLASS_ROOT find the entry for exefiles/Shell/Open it should be something like "%1" %*

Sorry if it is a bit vague. Usual cavets apply to playing with the registry etc.

 

[Blue Sky]

So I looked at the regedit, but I can't find anything about shell or open.

Anyone know whereabouts I can find these on XP?

 

[Dismas]

So I looked at the regedit, but I can't find anything about shell or open.

Anyone know whereabouts I can find these on XP?

I'll have a bit more of look this week.

 

[Cyberknight]

So I looked at the regedit, but I can't find anything about shell or open.

Anyone know whereabouts I can find these on XP?

I have XP home edition and I just checked it. It's in HKEY_CLASS_ROOT/exefile/shell/open/command.
The data under Default is "%1" %* like Dismas said. Your data must have been changed somehow.
It is not missing, you would get an error stating no file associated.

 

[Blue Sky]

That fixed it.

Darn, I love these boards.