HDD GURU FORUMS

Now I am experiencing a new problem in my Windows XP. When I try to open any Pdf file (by Adobe Reader), Zip file (by Winrar), or Media file (by VLC or UM Player) by double click on the file, it not open or run. Only open the related program which is used to open or view the file (Adobe Reader, Winrar or UM Player). After open the program, I have to manually browse the file from the program and then can open. But it is very lengthy process.

To solve this problem, if I reinstall the program (Winrar, Adobe Reader or Media Player), it temporarily solve the problem, but not lasting more than 24 hours. I again face the same condition within one day.

Hi !
Looks like your computer might be infected with malware.
I would start by scanning the computer with avira rescue cd or better yet take the drive out and scann it with a known un-infected system.
Then run superantispyware and spybot search and destroy.

You might also try to run combofix and see if it helps.

Malwarebytes free version also is another one you could try.

http://www.Malwarebytes.org



Loki

You should not be still running WinXP.

go to win7

Sorry, Unless you never connect to the internet, or dis-allow any removeable media on your system, this wont be the last of your problems.

if you do decide to ignore commonsense, then a re-install of XP may help, for a while until the next infection.

I agree that, virus or malware may be the cause of this problem. But antivirus program like AVG, Malwarebyte, Webroot etc. consider the necessary programs as virus and sometimes they become very aggrasive and harmful for the files and programs of my computer. I think, only Norton was the good antivirus which prevent only real viruses, not affect on good programs. But my Norton trial period has expired and I could not renew it because I could not connect to norton server.

Can anybody suggest me good antivirus or antimalware like Norton which is 100% safe and will not affect on my good programs?

Madoka wrote:You might also try to run combofix and see if it helps.

I have downloaded combofix, but still not install. Is it safe? Combofix itself warn the users not to use it without expert.

Combofix should be safe to use.
The tool will not install neither stay resident.
This will NOT keep your computer safe, it's just a tool to get rid of malware when you run it, and revert changes done to the system by malware.

Just run combofix as admin and wait for it to finish. You will see a dos-prompt window with the steps the toll is executing.
When it finish it will open a log with notepad.
Combofix will try to remove all the malware it knows about and also will restore some system configuration to default.

Your best bet is to find a friend, relative or repair shop that is experienced in malware removal. It is hard enough at times for those of us that have been removing malware for 15 odd years, someone less experience is likely going to either miss it, install new malware or mess up the system.

After run Combofix, I got following Warning: "Combofix has detected following real time scanner(s) to be active:
antivirus: AVG update module
Antivirus and intrusion prevention programs are known to interfere win Combofix's running. This may lead to unpredictable results or possible machine damage.
Please disable these scanners before clicking OK."

But actually AVG is not currently installed. I was used AVG before, but already uninstalled, although it was not normally uninstalled, I have to use another program to uninstall it, and still have an AVG shortcut icon. But according to my knowledge, AVG is not active now. I do not know, where so called AVG update module located and how I can disable it.

Download and run the AVG Removal Tool (http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5377- ... stall.html). You might have to do it in safe mode, I don't remember. Alternatively, use AutoRuns to disable any AVG-related services/modules from starting up with Windows, reboot, then delete any remaining shortcuts and registry entries. Revo Uninstaller is also handy for this.

I don't have access to a Windows XP machine, but I would do something like the following.

In Windows Explorer, select View -> Details. Locate a PDF file and note its file Type, eg "Foxit Reader PDF Document".

Right-click the PDF file and take note of the default Action. For example, it might be Open, or Edit, or Print.

Now select View -> Folder Options -> File Types. Scroll down to "Foxit Reader PDF Document" or whatever your file Type happened to be.

Select Edit. You should now see an Actions window.

Select the appropriate Action (eg open) and click Edit.

You should now see the "Application used to perform action".

In my case it is (including quotes) ...

"C:\Foxit\Foxit Reader.exe" "%1"

Your procedure may differ from the above, but I think you can understand the gist of it.

BTW, you can also create a New Action. For example, I have two actions for PDF files, namely "Open with Foxit" and "Open with Acrobat". I can choose one or the other by r-clicking the PDF file. You might like to add an Action of your own, in case the default Open action is hijacked.

Another way for file associations is commandline. I used these in scripts on some of my servers to fix a network wide muckup due to a problem with word wanting to open with write.exe. Until I rebuild the domain, I am using assoc and ftype to make the default MSword again. It will revert on a logout for some reason I haven't had the motivation to track down.

Code:

C:\Users\vm09>assoc /?
Displays or modifies file extension associations

ASSOC [.ext[=[fileType]]]

  .ext      Specifies the file extension to associate the file type with
  fileType  Specifies the file type to associate with the file extension

Type ASSOC without parameters to display the current file associations.
If ASSOC is invoked with just a file extension, it displays the current
file association for that file extension.  Specify nothing for the file
type and the command will delete the association for the file extension.

Code:

C:\Users\vm09>ftype /?
Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations

FTYPE [fileType[=[openCommandString]]]

  fileType  Specifies the file type to examine or change
  openCommandString Specifies the open command to use when launching files
                    of this type.

Type FTYPE without parameters to display the current file types that
have open command strings defined.  FTYPE is invoked with just a file
type, it displays the current open command string for that file type.
Specify nothing for the open command string and the FTYPE command will
delete the open command string for the file type.  Within an open
command string %0 or %1 are substituted with the file name being
launched through the assocation.  %* gets all the parameters and %2
gets the 1st parameter, %3 the second, etc.  %~n gets all the remaining
parameters starting with the nth parameter, where n may be between 2 and 9,
inclusive.  For example:

    ASSOC .pl=PerlScript
    FTYPE PerlScript=perl.exe %1 %*

would allow you to invoke a Perl script as follows:

    script.pl 1 2 3

If you want to eliminate the need to type the extensions, then do the
following:

    set PATHEXT=.pl;%PATHEXT%

and the script could be invoked as follows:

    script 1 2 3


so to test, create a file called file1.abc. doubleclick it and notice it wont open with any software. Close the msg box.
open a command windows, in win7 you will need to rightclick cmd.exe and run as asministrator.
type in:

Code:

C:\windows\system32>assoc .abc=abcfile

you should get:

Code:

.abc=abcfile

what you have done is told windows that anything with extension .abc is called an abcfile. That is half the work

now type in

Code:

C:\windows\system32>ftype abcfile="c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe" "%1"

you should get:

Code:

abcfile="c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe" "%1"

note where the quotation marks are. You have now said that "abcfile" is going to consist of notepad opening a file(the file you are trying to open is going to replace the "%1")

if you go to the folder of file1.abc you will notice the icon has changed to a Notepad icon.

this procedure is the same as rightclicking a file, choosing "open with" and ticking the "always open files of this type with this application"