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General Vista Help and Support The general Windows Vista discussion forum, for topics not covered elsewhere. (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)

Programs won't start



 
 
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  #1 (permalink)  
Old February 22nd 12, 06:53 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Groundhog Gus
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8
Default Programs won't start

Don't know how Dell works, but I have an HP with Vista Home Premium.
Instead of a disc supplied by the manufacturer, your disk should be
partitioned into a C: and a D:. The D: drive should also have system
saved files on it. If you know the DATE that 'no .exe' happened, then it
might be simple for you. If not, you'll either have to edit the the
registery or completely rebuild the C: drive.
Try this, when you first boot up the system, you should have which
Function key to press to do a system recovery. On mine it's F11. Keep
pressing it until you get the recovery screen. Then on the screen select
ADVANCED. It should show you a list of files you can recover. Select the
one that dates BEFORE you know the 'no .exe' error occured and let the
system do it's thing. The great part of the ADVANCED option is it will
restore the system files to that date and ONLY the system files. Any of
your regular files will not be changed. It takes about 15 minutes and
saves you a hole lot of work. This option has saved my butt many times.
It's worth a try.
  #2 (permalink)  
Old February 22nd 12, 08:06 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Gene E. Bloch[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 62
Default Programs won't start

On 2/22/2012, Groundhog Gus posted:
Don't know how Dell works, but I have an HP with Vista Home Premium.
Instead of a disc supplied by the manufacturer, your disk should be
partitioned into a C: and a D:. The D: drive should also have system
saved files on it. If you know the DATE that 'no .exe' happened, then it
might be simple for you. If not, you'll either have to edit the the
registery or completely rebuild the C: drive.
Try this, when you first boot up the system, you should have which
Function key to press to do a system recovery. On mine it's F11. Keep
pressing it until you get the recovery screen. Then on the screen select
ADVANCED. It should show you a list of files you can recover. Select the
one that dates BEFORE you know the 'no .exe' error occured and let the
system do it's thing. The great part of the ADVANCED option is it will
restore the system files to that date and ONLY the system files. Any of
your regular files will not be changed. It takes about 15 minutes and
saves you a hole lot of work. This option has saved my butt many times.
It's worth a try.


It would help if you had posted this as a reply in the original thread.

In this instance, said thread is nearby, but otherwise it would be hard
to relate your post to what you replied to - *especially* since you
didn't even quote the original post.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)


  #3 (permalink)  
Old February 22nd 12, 08:30 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Gene E. Bloch[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 62
Default Programs won't start

On 2/22/2012, Gene E. Bloch posted:
On 2/22/2012, Groundhog Gus posted:
Don't know how Dell works, but I have an HP with Vista Home Premium.
Instead of a disc supplied by the manufacturer, your disk should be
partitioned into a C: and a D:. The D: drive should also have system saved
files on it. If you know the DATE that 'no .exe' happened, then it might
be simple for you. If not, you'll either have to edit the the registery
or completely rebuild the C: drive. Try this, when you first boot up the
system, you should have which Function key to press to do a system
recovery. On mine it's F11. Keep pressing it until you get the recovery
screen. Then on the screen select ADVANCED. It should show you a list of
files you can recover. Select the one that dates BEFORE you know the 'no
.exe' error occured and let the system do it's thing. The great part of
the ADVANCED option is it will restore the system files to that date and
ONLY the system files. Any of your regular files will not be changed. It
takes about 15 minutes and saves you a hole lot of work. This option has
saved my butt many times. It's worth a try.


It would help if you had posted this as a reply in the original thread.


In this instance, said thread is nearby, but otherwise it would be hard to
relate your post to what you replied to - *especially* since you didn't even
quote the original post.


OTOH, I have come to think that it might have been just a slip of the
mouse, so I'll calm down a bit :-)

For one thing, your name seems somewhat familiar to me, and also,
you're using Xnews, so you're probably not a newbie...

If I'm wrong, please feel free to reinstate my original complaint - on
the honor system, of course :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)


  #4 (permalink)  
Old February 22nd 12, 09:48 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Percival P. Cassidy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6
Default Programs won't start

On 02/22/12 01:53 pm, Groundhog Gus wrote:
Don't know how Dell works, but I have an HP with Vista Home Premium.
Instead of a disc supplied by the manufacturer, your disk should be
partitioned into a C: and a D:. The D: drive should also have system
saved files on it. If you know the DATE that 'no .exe' happened, then it
might be simple for you. If not, you'll either have to edit the the
registery or completely rebuild the C: drive.
Try this, when you first boot up the system, you should have which
Function key to press to do a system recovery. On mine it's F11. Keep
pressing it until you get the recovery screen. Then on the screen select
ADVANCED. It should show you a list of files you can recover. Select the
one that dates BEFORE you know the 'no .exe' error occured and let the
system do it's thing. The great part of the ADVANCED option is it will
restore the system files to that date and ONLY the system files. Any of
your regular files will not be changed. It takes about 15 minutes and
saves you a hole lot of work. This option has saved my butt many times.
It's worth a try.


I have since discovered that there is indeed a Recovery Partition that
will allow the machine to be restored to its factory-fresh condition,
but that will be the last resort.

Restoring from a saved restore point fails, even from a restore point a
month or more ago.

I now have the set of disks (only 3 CDs) to which he did that original
backup, but I haven't yet tried restoring from them. Can they hold the
whole OS? I would have expected a few DVDs.

The disadvantage of restoring to the factory-fresh state (if that is
what it takes) is that he may lose his MS Office, which was preinstalled
but needed an activation key ($$), which I don't know whether he still has.

I can see the problem with the registry by comparison with the extracts
Joe Morris posted in reply to my original message, but since no programs
will run, I cannot use regedit to try to fix the problem.

Perce
  #5 (permalink)  
Old February 23rd 12, 12:25 AM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Joe Morris
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 158
Default Programs won't start

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote:

[system will not run a .exe file...]

[snippage]

I can see the problem with the registry by comparison with the extracts
Joe Morris posted in reply to my original message, but since no programs
will run, I cannot use regedit to try to fix the problem.


Do you have, or can you borrow, an installation disk for either Vista or
Windows 7? We won't be installing anything from it, but it can give you the
tools to inspect and edit the Registry.

(Incidentally...if you can see the Registry settings, what tool are you
using that can't edit them?)


Boot the installation disk, click NEXT on the dialog that asks for language,
time format, and keyboard mapping, then click "Install now". The system on
the DVD will run for a few seconds, then present you with the license text.
Leave the license text on the screen; we don't need anything beyond this
point from the normal installation process.

Press SHIFT+F10; a command box will open, with the prompt reading
"X:\Sources".

Type REGEDIT and press RETURN. The normal GUI window for REGEDIT will
appear.

In the left pane select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then in the menu bar click
FILE - LOAD HIVE... . In the "Load Hive" dialog, navigate to
C:\Windows\System32, then in the "file name" field type CONFIG\SOFTWARE and
click OPEN. A new dialog will open asking for the "Key Name"; type
something like aaa and click OK.

Assuming you typed "aaa" above, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you'll find a
key named "aaa" below it. Expand "aaa" and one of the entries near the top
will be "Classes" - which is the real location for what is exposed as
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Check the .exe and exefile entries here and correct
them.

When you're finished, left-click the "aaa" entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,
then click the menu item FILE - UNLOAD HIVE and confirm that you want to
unload it and all of its subkeys. Close the Registry Editor, then remove
the installation disk and reboot the computer. **IF** the .exe and/or
exefile entries were the only problem you may be home free, but as I noted
in the earlier posting anything that corrupts part of the system has
probably diddled elsewhere as well.

Good luck.

Joe Morris


  #6 (permalink)  
Old February 23rd 12, 01:27 AM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Percival P. Cassidy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6
Default Programs won't start

On 02/22/12 07:25 pm, Joe Morris wrote:

[system will not run a .exe file...]

[snippage]

I can see the problem with the registry by comparison with the extracts
Joe Morris posted in reply to my original message, but since no programs
will run, I cannot use regedit to try to fix the problem.


Do you have, or can you borrow, an installation disk for either Vista or
Windows 7? We won't be installing anything from it, but it can give you the
tools to inspect and edit the Registry.

(Incidentally...if you can see the Registry settings, what tool are you
using that can't edit them?)


snip

OK, I haven't yet tried your instructions that follow, but I think what
I did comes close: I booted from a WinPE-based Macrium Reflect recovery
CD, went to the command line and executed REGEDIT. I could see that the
only thing under HKLM/Software/Classes/.exe was the Default. I then
created the new Keys and values that you quoted me earlier and exited
REGEDIT, but the new values did not seem to "stick." (I thought that any
changes were saved automatically on exit, and I didn't know about the
[UN]LOAD HIVE command.)

I'll try your most recent instructions and report back.

Thanks.

Perce

  #7 (permalink)  
Old February 23rd 12, 05:52 AM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 30
Default Programs won't start

On Feb 22, 12:53*pm, Groundhog Gus wrote:
Don't know how Dell works, but I have an HP with Vista Home Premium.
Instead of a disc supplied by the manufacturer, your disk should be
partitioned into a C: and a D:. The D: drive should also have system
saved files on it. *If you know the DATE that 'no .exe' happened, then it
might be simple for you. *If not, you'll either have to edit the the
registery *or completely rebuild the C: drive.
* Try this, when you first boot up the system, you should have which
Function key to press to do a system recovery. On mine it's F11. Keep
pressing it until you get the recovery screen. Then on the screen select
ADVANCED. It should show you a list of files you can recover. Select the
one that dates BEFORE you know the 'no .exe' error occured and let the
system do it's thing. *The great part of the ADVANCED option is it will
restore the system files to that date and ONLY *the system files. Any of
your regular files will not be changed. *It takes about 15 minutes and
saves you a hole lot of work. *This option has saved my butt many times..
It's worth a try.


REFORMAT YOUR COMPUTER AND INSTALL OPEN SOURCE LINUX UBUNTU! JUST FYI!
THREAD CLOSED!
  #8 (permalink)  
Old February 23rd 12, 11:21 AM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Joe Morris
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 158
Default Programs won't start

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote:
On 02/22/12 07:25 pm, Joe Morris wrote:

[system will not run a .exe file...]

[snippage]

I can see the problem with the registry by comparison with the extracts
Joe Morris posted in reply to my original message, but since no programs
will run, I cannot use regedit to try to fix the problem.


Do you have, or can you borrow, an installation disk for either Vista or
Windows 7? We won't be installing anything from it, but it can give you
the
tools to inspect and edit the Registry.

(Incidentally...if you can see the Registry settings, what tool are you
using that can't edit them?)


snip

OK, I haven't yet tried your instructions that follow, but I think what I
did comes close: I booted from a WinPE-based Macrium Reflect recovery CD,
went to the command line and executed REGEDIT. I could see that the only
thing under HKLM/Software/Classes/.exe was the Default. I then created the
new Keys and values that you quoted me earlier and exited REGEDIT, but the
new values did not seem to "stick." (I thought that any changes were saved
automatically on exit, and I didn't know about the [UN]LOAD HIVE command.)


What REGEDIT displays by default is the Registry for the system that was
booted...so you were looking at, and editing, the settings for the WinPE
system. Since it's on a read-only optical disk, they survived only until
the machine was rebooted. Editing a hive from a read-write disk, OTOH,
results in persistent changes...regardless of whether you fat-fingered a
change.

Note that WinPE is a *very* stripped-down vesion of Windows, so it's missing
(or has different Registry settings for) many of the settings you expect to
find in a full installation.

#include DireWarningsAboutRegistryEditing.h

What the load/unload hive function does is to graft another (non-booted)
system's Registry components onto the display of the booted system's
Registry. (And it's a bit more complex than that, since HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
is actually a merger of several separate hives...look at the contents of
C:\Windows\System32\Config .)

I'll try your most recent instructions and report back.


Again, good luck.

Joe


  #9 (permalink)  
Old February 23rd 12, 05:58 PM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Percival P. Cassidy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6
Default Programs won't start

On 02/23/12 06:21 am, Joe Morris wrote:

[system will not run a .exe file...]

[snippage]

I can see the problem with the registry by comparison with the extracts
Joe Morris posted in reply to my original message, but since no programs
will run, I cannot use regedit to try to fix the problem.

Do you have, or can you borrow, an installation disk for either Vista or
Windows 7? We won't be installing anything from it, but it can give you
the
tools to inspect and edit the Registry.

(Incidentally...if you can see the Registry settings, what tool are you
using that can't edit them?)


snip

OK, I haven't yet tried your instructions that follow, but I think what I
did comes close: I booted from a WinPE-based Macrium Reflect recovery CD,
went to the command line and executed REGEDIT. I could see that the only
thing under HKLM/Software/Classes/.exe was the Default. I then created the
new Keys and values that you quoted me earlier and exited REGEDIT, but the
new values did not seem to "stick." (I thought that any changes were saved
automatically on exit, and I didn't know about the [UN]LOAD HIVE command.)


What REGEDIT displays by default is the Registry for the system that was
booted...so you were looking at, and editing, the settings for the WinPE
system. Since it's on a read-only optical disk, they survived only until
the machine was rebooted. Editing a hive from a read-write disk, OTOH,
results in persistent changes...regardless of whether you fat-fingered a
change.

Note that WinPE is a *very* stripped-down vesion of Windows, so it's missing
(or has different Registry settings for) many of the settings you expect to
find in a full installation.

#includeDireWarningsAboutRegistryEditing.h

What the load/unload hive function does is to graft another (non-booted)
system's Registry components onto the display of the booted system's
Registry. (And it's a bit more complex than that, since HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
is actually a merger of several separate hives...look at the contents of
C:\Windows\System32\Config .)

I'll try your most recent instructions and report back.


Again, good luck.


OK. I've tried again from the command prompt after booting the WinVista
installation disk, and the registry settings all seem fine. Is there
something else that would prevent execution of .exe files and that could
be fixed easily? E.g., an essential file has been deleted or renamed?

The restore-from-a-backup feature does not recognize the three CDs as a
valid backup set -- which does not surprise me. They contain a bunch of
..zip files of the specified date in various subdirectories, but I
suspect that they contain only a backup of his data files at that date.
The restore-from-a-backup feature is expecting the backup to be on DVDs
or an external drive.

Perce
  #10 (permalink)  
Old February 24th 12, 01:05 AM posted to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Joe Morris
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 158
Default Programs won't start

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote:
On 02/23/12 06:21 am, Joe Morris wrote:

[system will not run a .exe file...]

[snippage]


OK. I've tried again from the command prompt after booting the WinVista
installation disk, and the registry settings all seem fine. Is there
something else that would prevent execution of .exe files and that could
be fixed easily? E.g., an essential file has been deleted or renamed?

The restore-from-a-backup feature does not recognize the three CDs as a
valid backup set -- which does not surprise me. They contain a bunch of
.zip files of the specified date in various subdirectories, but I suspect
that they contain only a backup of his data files at that date. The
restore-from-a-backup feature is expecting the backup to be on DVDs or an
external drive.


Sorry...no ideas at this time that are practical across a newsgroup.

When something like this turns up at the office I'll make a best-effort
attempt to find a problem - usually involving my remoting into the machine
(or, for Certain People, an on-site visit) - but if nothing turns up I toss
the ticket back to the help desk to have them schedule a reimage of the
user's machine. The times I've seen your symptoms the systems involved were
WinXP and the .exe and/or exefile entries had been corrupted by the user
messing around with the associations dialog. In a business world triage is
necessary, and getting the end user back to work is a high priority.

There may yet be a simple explanation and fix for your problem; perhaps
someone else among the newsgroup readership has a suggestion?

Joe


 




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