Repeated Problem with Lost File Associations in Win XP

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Mwasso
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:09 am

Repeated Problem with Lost File Associations in Win XP

Post by Mwasso »

Good morning,
I have an ongoing problem with the above and would welcome some advice. I have no expertise in computers but have tried to fix this problem by searching the net and applying what seemed usefull.

My PC is a bog standard Dell Optiplex GX270 Winx XP Pro SP1a updated to SP3 with Microsoft automatic updates and Avira free anti virus running. One HDD nominally 80GB with about 25GB free space. I have the Dell Reinstallation CD which says it contains Windows XP SP1a but it is not a standard XP disk and I couldn't slipstream it with SP3. Doing a full reinstallation with all the updates would be a long job!

On starting my pc a couple of weeks ago I saw the error message "Windows cannot open this file". I clicked select the program from a list. In the window that appears, I selected the correct program to open the file, or where necessary browsed to find the correct program to open some files. I cannot click “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” box as it is greyed out! This wasn’t entirely succesful so I searched for and found various registry fixes, notably those by Doug Knox at http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm. I applied those which seemed most appropriate and all seemed to be repaired and running well. However, on restarting the pc I found the error message "Windows cannot open this file" has returned.

I have no definite ideas as to why or how the problem arose. I have not knowingly been to any risky websites and have not received any dubious emails.

I did recently download, install and run once Glarysoft Registry Repair, the free version, before I read comments advising against using registry cleaners in general in another web page. However I didn’t notice an immediate failure of the file associations after I ran that Glarysoft software so there may be no connection.

Suspecting an infection I ran a full scan of Avira then Malwarebytes both of which found nothing. I then tried DrWeb CureIt running in “enhanced protection mode” which found Trojan.Siggen2.42152 in exefix_xp.com and moved this to a safe place. Although I had downloaded exefix_xp.com after the problem started I "clutching at straws" hoped this might be the problem and solution but the error message "Windows cannot open this file" returned when I restarted the pc.

Next I downloaded the AVG and Avira rescue CDs and ran both, neither found any infection. After some more research I tried RKill followed by the latest update of Malwarebytes. The first time I ran RKill it flashed onto the windows desktop and disappeared immediately so I don’t know if it found and removed any malware. After a bit more self education I found out about running in the Virtual DOS window and RKill reported no terminated processes, perhaps it got something first time?

Running Malwarebytes again after RKill found nothing either.

Following this I downloaded and ran Dr.Web CureIt again which identified Fport.exe and FE91A880d01 as riskware but nothing else. I deleted the latter.

Finally I updated to the current Avira free anti virus 2012 and set it to make a complete scan which again found nothing.

I stll have the "Windows cannot open this file" problem after a restart but have left “xp_exe_fix.reg”, “linkfilerestore.reg” and “exefix.reg” on my C drive, any of which fix the lost file associations for that session. I ran Rkill.exe again this morning and it did not report anything:

“Processes terminated by Rkill or while it was running:

Rkill completed on 02/12/2011 at 11:46:39. “


Apart from this file extension problem the machine appears to run well. I assume there must be something, or things, still lurking in my computer but don’t know how to find it (or them). Would UVK help me find and remove them?

Any comments or advice would be much appreciated.

Mwasso
Fred
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Location: Red coast, France
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Re: [b]Repeated Problem with Lost File Associations in Win X

Post by Fred »

Hi Mwasso, welcome to the forum.

When I started reading your post, I thought it was the .exe file extesion/association that was corrupted.

But then you said you downloaded and run all those programs, so I assumed that since you were able to run them, the executable file association shouldn't be corrupted.

To be able to help you, I need to know what is the name of the file. This is very important, because you say the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" checkbox was grayed.

Usually this box is only grayed when you're trying to open a file with no extension i.e. C:\filename.

That makes me think you have a no extension file running on startup, probably in your startup folder: %Userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup for english language OS's.

You can check that either using UVK or msconfig.

Hope this helps.
One thing we humans have in common is that we are all different. So, if you think you're weird because you're different from everyone else, then we are all weird.

Fred
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