Djinn
New member
Ok, I spent the better part of a day struggling with this. Just got it worked out, and I want to put my solution somewhere online so someday it may help someone with the same problem.
The issue was that for no apparent cause, I could no longer run most executable files. The error message was:
This was happening when I was double-clicking on the executables themselves; there was no typo. Nor did the files have any strange characters.
Diagnosis was tricky, because the issue also impacted regedit.exe, chkdsk.exe and msconfig.exe.
Going into safe mode allowed me to run these files normally.
Eventually, I tried a number of solutions, including:
Uninstalling AVG Antivirus. After uninstalling, I went to AVG's site, and downloaded a cleaner program that scrubbed residual files.
In safe mode, I ran SFC /SCANNOW
In same mode I ran CHKDSK /F (which required a reboot to execute)
... Some combination of these resolved the problem, after which I installed Avast Free Antivirus.
The issue was that for no apparent cause, I could no longer run most executable files. The error message was:
This was happening when I was double-clicking on the executables themselves; there was no typo. Nor did the files have any strange characters.
Diagnosis was tricky, because the issue also impacted regedit.exe, chkdsk.exe and msconfig.exe.
Going into safe mode allowed me to run these files normally.
Eventually, I tried a number of solutions, including:
Uninstalling AVG Antivirus. After uninstalling, I went to AVG's site, and downloaded a cleaner program that scrubbed residual files.
In safe mode, I ran SFC /SCANNOW
In same mode I ran CHKDSK /F (which required a reboot to execute)
... Some combination of these resolved the problem, after which I installed Avast Free Antivirus.