Nothing is opening.

KoreishKoreish I'm a penguin, deal with it.KCMO Icrontian
edited January 2012 in Science & Tech
Like the title says. Every time I try to open a program a box pops up that says "Windows cannot open this file" respective file name.exe

It started yesterday when Firefox crashed on me and it has, spread, to my other programs as well. I don't know if I have some weird virus or if it's just an OS problem.

My OS is Vista if that helps any.

Comments

  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    You've got virus/malware! IIRC combofix is a thing to do now. Might try running MBAM as well.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    What shwaip said, then this. However, I'm more and more of the ilk that if you get a decent virus/malware, wipe and reinstall is the best answer, though often the most annoying. However, I'm typically satisfied by running several scanners and seeing abatement of all symptoms.
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    Was given a laptop with this problem, a reasonably tech savvy friend wasted hours trying to fix it before it got to me so I didn't even bother trying to salvage the install.

    Personally I'd just nuke it from orbit wipe and reinstall.
  • IlriyasIlriyas The Syrupy Canadian Toronto, Ontario Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    I agree with the above, a wipe and reinstall will do the trick, I've had several viruses like this occur before. Once upon a time I made the foolish mistake of backing up my old Hard Drive before reinstalling, (Really didn't want to have to go around reinstalling all of my files) ended up getting the virus all over again.

    sooo...yeah...don't do that XP

    EDIT: If the virus is bad enough that you can't open anything my father's rule of thumb is just to kill everything redo everything, it won't hurt and if it's something like a Rootkit then there's no chance of it coming back.

    This rule of thumb also applies to viruses that make it so that your computer can't even TURN ON (A Really bad Rootkit will do that, these are also the rootkits which require a system wipe because they have the nasty habit of hiding pieces of themselves all around your computer and reforming after you think its gone)
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Personally I'd just nuke it from orbit wipe and reinstall.
    That is the response for finding a spider, not a computer virus, silly!
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    I've done quite a few of these lately. One of them, I said fuck it and spent the time fixing it. It took more of my time than just reinstalling it would have.

    Another vote for wipe and reinstall.
  • KoreishKoreish I'm a penguin, deal with it. KCMO Icrontian
    Well I got around it by opening MBAM as Administer which nuked the virus (I hope). If I have the problem again I'll just wipe it as suggested. But so far it's been good.
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