Unable to open .exe files

Anonymous
2010-02-01T02:00:45+00:00

Vista won't load .exe files! And more problems...

Ok, so all of a sudden, my computer goes berserk and I get all these pop-ups and messages saying that my computer is infected. Then it continues to say that I can't use the computer unless I delete the Trojans. I press the Remove Virus button and it takes me to a page on IE that says I have to pay for this Windows Vista Security package to remove the viruses. I ignore that, and proceed to download Avast! the great free anti-virus program that so many people have told me about.

Well, I tried to open Avast! but Windows kept saying that that file was infected. So I shut down several times, and I still had the problem. So I gave up, went to bed, hoping that the problem would be fixed tomorrow.

Next day: I opened Windows, and I didn't have any of those pop-ups. But, I couldn't open ANYTHING. I tried to open Firefox, and something popped up saying something like "Windows cannot find the correct program to open firefox.exe, choose a program from the list" and all that was on the list was Internet Explorer.

When I tried to open Microsoft Word, it said that it couldn't find the correct program, and told me to choose frmo the listed programs, which was just Internet Explorer.

Same thing happened with Google Chrome, Avast!, and Notepad.... All of them were prompting me to open them with a different kind of program.

Thing is, when I try to open IE itself, it prompts me to open it with the correct program-opener, and lists Internet explorer.

I didn't get those pop-ups, or messages telling me I had viruses anymore...

Please help, as soon as possible.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Apps

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Anonymous
2012-03-30T01:04:56+00:00

Hello Pixel Lite,

There was a KB article created to help fix this issue, the article has a Fix it to automate the steps.

See this KB article:

Can't open .EXE files in Windows 7 or Windows Vista

Hope this helps.

L.D.

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Anonymous
2010-02-04T09:10:54+00:00

So I just fixed mine, EXEs are loading correctly now. It was a few registry issues that just need to be changed.

  1. Type command in the RUN dialog box to open Command Prompt
  2. When Command Prompt is up, type cd \windows3. Type regedit to open up the Registries.

4. Expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and find the folder of .exe

  1. Without expanding it, on the main .exe folder, Right-click (Default) and Modify. Change the Value Data to exefile6. Now in the same HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT find the folder of exefile and Right-click (Default) and Modify. Change the Value Data to "%1" %*
  2. Lastly expand exefile, expand shell, expand open, click on the command folder, Right-click (Default) and Modify. Change the Value Data to "%1" %*
  3. Close Regedit and Restart the computer. When restarted, EXE files should not prompt you to choose a program to run it now and load correctly.

Hope this helps yall out!

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-02-12T04:25:47+00:00

    I have been trying to use the Malwarebytes. But, everytime I try to download, it won't open. Just takes me to PCTools and I try to download.

     It won't work because I can't open a .exe file. Any help would be appreciated!

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-08T18:26:17+00:00

    I also have this problem on my XP machine!  Here are some facts which might be helpful.

    OVERALL LESSONS: (1) THIS VIRUS IS NASTY, GET HELP, (2) I DON'T THINK IT IS GONE.

    At 9:02pm on Feb 6, 2010 my computer somehow got e.exe on it, which put av.exe on it, which then began showing the Antivirus Pro 2010 messages that my computer was infected, etc (All these changes recorded in Norton Internet Security 2009 as "low risk" and allowed).  At the same time, GoogleUpdate.exe began trying to modify my Norton IS files, but was persistently rejected by Norton IS.  I read online to figure out that it was av.exe causing the problem, followed the instructions on a website to kill the process and edit the registry to fix it by deleting the registry keys I had read about (via Run regedit.exe), and then after I rebooted my computer I could not open any program directly (that ended in .exe), which also meant I could no longer edit the registry via regedit.exe.

    And then I noticed the all lowercase "start" in addition to "Open", "Run as..." and other options when I right clicked any executable.  My wife's computer does not have "start" as an option, and the fact it is all lowercase screams hack.  Strangely, clicking "start" would make executables run.  I also found that if I click on, say, a word file it will open in word, but clicking word directly in Start Programs gets the No application is associated with this extension etc. message.

    Not being able to use .exe files was of course a huge problem.

    Desperate, I paid $99.99 to Norton to take over my computer and remove all viruses (the fact that I had already was paying a subsription for Norton Internet Security 2009 apparently does not result in any discount, if it gets past NIS it is apparently our problem not Norton's).  The Norton guy first deleted av.exe (still on my computer after I had deleted it once!) and all temporary files.

    Then Norton guy used some tricks that might be helpful: they copied the regedit.exe to the desktop, then right-clicked and used the "start" hack.  They fixed my registry by replacing some values with "%1 %" where I had deleted them (I think don't quote me, and I notice this is similar but subtly different from what is written elsewhere in this post), and also replacing some other stuff, and they reverted the Internet Explorer location.

    Then Norton guy turned some Internet Explorer options to default.  Then they said it was all fixed.

    BUT I DON'T THINK THE VIRUSES ARE GONE!  The reason being that (1) Norton still no longer shows green check marks when I search the web, and (2) I still see the hack "start" option when I right-click stuff.

    Apparently I paid $99 I paid to Norton guy to fix SOME of the problems on my computer, and sadly I think that $99 was much better than me trying to make progress myself, even if though I am unhappy the did not completely fix the problem.

    I will try downloading and running malwarebytes, per the suggestions of other posters, and hope somebody figures out what to do soon.  My IT friend's guess is that this is something new that just came out in the past few days (I notice the first post was February 2nd) and will get fixed by Microsoft/Norton and other antivirus stuff soon.  I really hope so, because Norton Internet Security 2009 has consistently found nothing despite the obvious infection (and as I mentioned, even allowed av.exe to modify registry keys and files in the first place).

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-07T08:05:30+00:00

    when you try to open explorer and it give you the choice of

    • Use the Web service to find the correct program
    • Select a program from a list of installed programs.

    Choose the first one, that should put you on the internet.  Then you'll be able to search for malewarebyte and download it.

    I ended up using both  lilvtboiraver suggestion, and downloaded and ran Malewarebyte like tlarry92 suggested. 

    Everything was working with  lilvtboiraver's suggestion, but I still ran the malewarebyte to make sure that it fully cleaned everything.

    Good luck to you.

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