Unable to open .exe files

Anonymous

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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

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

Type command in the RUN dialog box to open Command Prompt
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

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" %*
Lastly expand exefile, expand shell, expand open, click on the command folder, Right-click (Default) and Modify. Change the Value Data to "%1" %*
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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183 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-02-18T04:05:04+00:00

To fix broken .exe links go here for Vista;

**http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/File-association-fixes-for-Windows-Vista.html**

or here for XP, etc:

**http://filext.com/faq/broken\_exe\_association.php**

The av.exe virus and its variants break all .exe links so that you can not run programs to get rid of it. It's a very nasty bug.

You may be able to run iexplore.exe as an ADMINISTRATOR but will not run by simply opening it.
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Anonymous

2010-02-18T04:45:35+00:00

Jimbo!!! You are awesome! Everyone else was telling me to do things that I had no idea how to start. I did this and it worked great!!! Thank you a million times. You just proved that there are still great people in the world. Not all people are out to cause harm or give us nasty virus'. Thanks again!!!
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Anonymous

2010-02-20T14:14:06+00:00

So glad you all got your pc's fixed.

This was definitely a virus. From what I've read here in the descriptions it was either the same one or a similiar one that happened very recently over at photobucket.com. I was browsing there one night about 3 weeks ago, when all of a sudden my whole screen went red and there was a big warning sign that said my pc was infected and that I should go directly to the MICROSOFT website by clicking on this link. The page had a MicroSoft box and an icon on it - it looked completely authentic. But, I knew to never do that so I quickly closed the browser out, reopened it and went to MICROSOFT directly. I couldn't find anything here so I asked if they knew anything about this " red message" that came up on photobucket. When they answered me they said they had not heard anything - they thought I might have a virus and gave me some instructions and links but I had already done what they suggested. I also wrote to photobucket and asked them if they had heard anything like that happening with other customers - They just sent me a generic letter telling me to do stuff like clear the cache, cookies, etc... I had continued to look all over the net before I got their answers and found NOTHING.

I went back to photobucket 4 days later - nothing happened. I clicked off and went back in about 10 minutes later and this time after a minute a SMALL red box appeared with that same message. At the same time my anti-virus program popped up a message saying it had just blocked a TROJAN. so I went looking around again - this time when I googled the question a few sites came up with almost the same question without the mention of photobucket. they were tech forum sites where people were asking similiar questions about this message popping up. Some already had damage on their pc's. I had already been running full scans with both of my anti-virus/spyware programs and they said I was clean. I also ran a registry cleaning utility after i ran the scans. I had no problems with my pc.

I continued to look around the web and sure enough day by day there were more posts about it and now they were mentioning Photobucket. Then Photobucket writes me another email asking me all kinds of questions and could I provide a print screen? I wrote them back telling them no way was I going back to their site until this was fixed. Then by sheer luck the next day, I was looking in this other forum and somebody had actually copied the warning box and pasted it in his post. So I copied that and sent it to photobucket. they wrote back - they were very grateful and were working on the problem - which is now fixed. It turns out it was an infected ad on the site and apparantly if you clicked on the site that's what downloaded it. (I NEVER click on ads on any site so not sure how accurate that info is) And it was a nasty virus too. Caused a lot of problems with their members - a lot of people lost their pictures or various albums. I guess I was lucky because it never got on my computer but also having 2 anti-virus/spyware programs on my pc helped.

Ironically it was only one of them that caught it - Norton - and I had just purchased that one about 2 weeks before all this happened!

From what some of you have described here it really does sound like a bad virus. If anyone is still having a problem and cannot do the fixes that are mentioned here - I suggest you take your pc to a shop or a an expert and have them fix it for you. Then get yourselves not one but TWO anti-virus and TWO anti spyware programs. At lease one of them should be a PAID SUBSCRIPTION. If both are paid that's even better - make sure they are reputable and well known companies like McAfee, Symnatec, Avast, Uniblue, etc... TROJANS and executable viruses are rampant more than ever these days on the web so instead of loosing all your data or worse your machines, spend a little money on some preventive protection. You wont' regret it.

Of course, it's just my opinion....I could be wrong!
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