[dba-Tech] W2K won't explore/run things normally

Jon Tydda jon at tydda.plus.com
Wed Feb 2 15:39:15 CST 2005


Have you tried more than one virus scanner? Some seem to pick things up
differently... for instance we've got McAfee on all the desktops and servers
at work, but they sometimes won't clean things up, so we run their Stinger
program, which looks for specific viruses, rathen than all 30 million of
them, and uses a different set of detection rules (according to their
website). Maybe Panda scan might be different again? I have McAfee 9 at
home, but occasionally use Panda, sometimes Stinger.

Similarly, I use 3 different anti-spyware programs, and they all find and
treat different things, and it's saved my from having to reinstall my pc
every 6 months like I used to have to. I use Spybot, Ad-Aware Pro and Giant.


Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of DJK(John)
Robinson
Sent: 02 February 2005 20:41
To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues'
Subject: [dba-Tech] W2K won't explore/run things normally


I have an old PC running Win2000 (fully up-to-date) and looking after my
ADSL connection, running firewall, centralised anti-virus updates, etc.
Occasionally something else, but mostly just these essentials.  PC is on all
the time, typically two weeks between reboots.

It's suddenly become unhelpful -
1.	trying to run programs via Start gives "Windows Explorer   Unable to
run this command"
2.	Winkey+E (shortcut to run Explorer):  "Access to the specified
device, path, or file is denied."  (I'm running as Administrator.)
3.	Double-clicking on a file to invoke the associated program:  no
effect at all.  (eg .txt to run notepad)
4.	Very few system things in the Control Panel work: most give symptom
2 or 3 above.

It's not just shortcuts, either.  Locate notepad.exe itself and double
click:  nothing.

BUT Winkey+R (to Run something) works fine!  Explorer and all the rest - IF
you know what to type in the Run window, eg  compmgmt.msc /s   Everything
works OK in itself: I just can't run anything the normal way.

Same after rebooting.  And the services are all running fine: ADSL, ZA,
Sophos, ...   And nothing interesting in the Event Viewer.  Did a full virus
and spyware scan, to be on the safe side - nothing.

Can't find anything useful on MSKB (and it's not Q172223).  Just had a quick
Google, but nothing useful so far.  And no, I don't have a folder call
"Program" on my C drive, nor am I trying to play an audio CD, ...

Has anyone come across a problem like this?  Or have any bright ideas?  I
strongly prefer to tackle and solve problems than give up and reformat,
reinstall, etc.

John
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