Help! .exe loads in Notepad.

I tried to install Sygate Personal Firewall on NT4(sp6). The installation failed. No idea why, because (I'm guessing here) Sygate seems to have blocked a logfile Dr Watson claimed it was creating. Whatever happened, the error log wasn't created.

When I tried to uninstall Sygate, I discovered the following:

- Double clicking a program icon on the desktop opens the program in Notepad.

- Trying to run a program via the start button menus does the same.

- Start|Run works fine.

- Right clicking a desktop icon and selecting "open" works fine.

- I can get into Control Panel, but anything I click in there loads into Notepad. *

- .bat files run fine from the desktop. I haven't tested .cmd yet.

- Files associated with programs appear to work normally from the desktop (the connected app runs and loads the file).

  • Because of the Control Panel problem, I couldn't use "install/remove programs", and no other method of uninstalling was available. Result: I had to do a manual uninstall to get rid of Sygate.

There are a few remnants Regedit says it can't delete (keys under the name LEGACY_SYGATE), and undoubtedly a few things I've missed. Does anyone know if these registry entries could be causing the .exe problem, and if so, how can I get rid of them? If they are not the cause, what could be, and how might I fix it?

I would just tear my hair out, but the reason I want a firewall installed is that I already tore it out while combatting a heap of viruses and other junk that got onto my hard drives a couple of weeks ago :(

TIA.

Reply to
Crazy Aljy
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It seems to be some spyware/ virus activity. You need to get some Anti Spyware program (You can search on google to find one, which best suits your needs). I hope scanning and fixing the threats you will be able to resolve the issue quickly.

Another good point to start working is kill any unknown programs running. You can do this from Task Manager. I hope it will help you. Keep us updated.

Regards,

K.N. Salman

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http://superfreehost> I tried to install Sygate Personal Firewall on NT4(sp6). The

installation

happened, the

"install/remove

installed is

Reply to
Kashif

Thanks Kashif.

Avast, Ad-Aware, Spybot-SD, and a few other anti-spyware programs are already installed. They find nothing suspicious. I've also tried killing unknown apps, but to no avail.

I did find a registry backup one of the anti-spyware programs made, so I was able to restore the registry to a previous state and do another scan to get rid of the spyware/adware entries it restored. I still have the problem with .exe files loading in Notepad, which leads me to think Sygate has changed one or more files on my system.

I have backups of all the old DLL's (only the DLL's) on my system, so I'll try that next, then see what happens.

Reply to
Crazy Aljy

Scratch all this. I found the problem.

A registry entry I came across by pure chance.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shell\\open\\command]

The default value was blank. The ones for comfile, batfile and similar contained a default value of...

"%1" %*

Tried it and it works. It my be wrong, but I'll sweat about that if it breaks :)

Reply to
Crazy Aljy

Hi Crazy,

I think your detective work is correct. Here is the appropriate registry entries for that key from my system:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile] @="Application" "EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\DefaultIcon] @="%1" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shell] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shell\\open] "EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shell\\open\\command] @="\\"%1\\" %*" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shellex] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shellex\\PropertySheetHandlers] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\exefile\\shellex\\PropertySheetHandlers\\PifProps] @="{86F19A00-42A0-1069-A2E9-08002B30309D}"

Hope this helps.

Calvin.

Reply to
Calvin

Much appreciated, Calvin.

I have a few minor differences here, mainly with the EditFlags entries. I'll give your settings a try and restore them if they don't work.

Many thanks.

Reply to
Crazy Aljy

Hi Crazy,

The 'edit Flags' entries are of no real consequence in this instance and may be different on your system - they are set by the system based on which action is the 'default' command and what other 'ancilliary' commands the particular file type has attached to it.

Elsewise though, the entries should be basically the same on all systems.

Calvin.

Reply to
Calvin

Hi Calvin.

When I changed the settings to what you have, I hit a few problems and had to change them back. I'm not sure whether it was the edit flags or the open\\command default string, which was also slightly different.

In any case, it's working now, so I'm happy :)

Reply to
Crazy Aljy

Hi Crazy,

Glad the problem is solved anyway. As I said, there may be some variations between systems - but the basics should be similar 'across the board'.

Calvin.

Reply to
Calvin

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