Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

AHH WTH IS GOIN ON

Mar 15, 2004 7:09AM PST

im not sure what happened, but for no reason everytime i try to open exe. files and a number of others and MDOS wondow comes up then disappears and im not sure what to do, ive tried system restore so dont give that idea

And if it helps a have a dell with windows XP

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:AHH WTH IS GOIN ON
Mar 15, 2004 7:32AM PST
- Collapse -
Re:AHH WTH IS GOIN ON
Mar 15, 2004 7:35AM PST
- Collapse -
Could it be your .exe associations are NOT correct??
Mar 15, 2004 7:42AM PST
- Collapse -
Aha some new info
Mar 15, 2004 12:01PM PST

Well after watchin a lil black screen appear and disappear in a spit second over and over i finally was able to get a screen shot of it and in the MDOS window it says file too big to fit in memory and also, i forgot to say this earlier but when i tried to open explorer on the desktop it didnt work but when i searched for kazaa(thought deleting it might help)i accidentally clicked on an internet explorer thing for kazaa and explorer came up, plz someone try to figure this out

- Collapse -
Re:Aha some new info
Mar 15, 2004 12:20PM PST

BillyRay,

I would suggest you download, update and run

SpybotS&D -
the download for Spybot S&D is available here: http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd

Install by double-clicking on the downloaded file.
Run Spybot S&D from desktop icon or Start menu.
Press "Search for updates" button to get list of updates available.
Press "Download updates" button.
Close all IE windows and close & restart Spybot S&D.
Press "Check for problems" button.
Have SpyBot remove all it marks in red by pressing "Fix selected problems"
Close Spybot S&D, reboot your system

ad aware in next post

- Collapse -
Ad aware
Mar 15, 2004 12:23PM PST

Download Ad-aware from here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
Install by double-clicking on the downloaded file.
After installing but before running, update Ad-aware by using its Globe icon.
After updating, shutdown and restart Ad-aware.
Ad-aware is ready to scan and clean your system following these steps:

Under Ad-aware 6 > Settings (Gear at the top) > Tweaks > Scanning Engine:
"Unload recognized processes during scanning."
Under Ad-aware 6 > Settings (Gear at the top) > Tweaks > Cleaning Engine:
"Let Windows remove files in use after reboot."
Press "Scan Now"
Check option "Use Custom scanning options"
Check option "Activate In-Depth Scan"
Press "Select drives\folders to scan"
Select the active partition which is usually C:
Press "Next" to let Ad-aware scan your drives...
If it finds "bad" files and registry keys, press "Next" again
Right-click in that pane and choose "select all"
Press "next"
When it asks to remove all checked items, Press "OK"
Close Ad-aware, reboot your system.

Maybe it would also be wise to run McAfee Stinger !

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Pls. let us know how you are doing Happy

- Collapse -
-Wah- :(
Mar 16, 2004 6:44AM PST

Your ideas were good but to use they stuff i have to be able to open it and when i try to open anything it does that lil MDOS window flash thing and well....anymore ideas

- Collapse -
Billy Ray, Please Try This:
Mar 16, 2004 8:01AM PST

As it sounds like a virus or spyware caused the issue, you may need to edit the registry to get it fixed. McAfee produces a file which should do that for you. Please click on the link below and download the file to your desktop. Once it's there, shut down all background programs, including your antivirus, then double click on the file. It will automatically make any changes to the registry. Restart the computer and see it that fixes the problem.

Undo.reg File for Cleaning Up Trojans
http://download.nai.com/products/MCAFEE-AVERT/stand_alone/undo.reg

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Billy Ray, Please Try This:
Mar 16, 2004 9:21AM PST

Grif,
do you suppose this will work with Worm Agobot as well?
a friend has an infected PC and I have edited the registry countless times but the worm still persisits. done the Regedit with the System Restore disabled, in safe mode, and still no luck.
your thoughts please.
david williams

- Collapse -
David, It Depends On The Changes That The Virus Makes
Mar 16, 2004 12:56PM PST

The "Undo.reg" file that I suggested above is a fairly simple registry edit which will "usually" allow for .exe files to once again run, IF the registry entry in question was the only one changed. Billy Ray's problem appears as though it could be helped by this file, but who knows. Here is the registry change made in the "Undo.reg"n file.

________________
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
___________________

On the other hand, some viruses/worms will make other registry changes which disable the registry and can disable other file extensions as well.. If that's the case, then the free Tweak Manager tool at the link below will usually let the user gain access to the registry and correct things. Here's that tool and the registry edit that it can help with:

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/190/

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Re:David, It Depends On The Changes That The Virus Makes
Mar 16, 2004 2:31PM PST

thank you Grif.
in the case of Agrobot, it has written itself into the
windows directory, in several folders including the prefetch folder and it is a matter of literally opening each folder and looking for it.

have noted the Registry tweak and may call on this function at some time in the future.

luckily the user is a newbie with less than a week on the PC and therefore no significant files to save.

eventual re-loading of XP-Pro may be the only option available.

thanks again.

david williams