can't open .exe files

alexalexalex

hi all,

i turned my laptop on today and after about 20 minutes i got a pop up from the taskbar from windows defender (didn't

even know i had that on this laptop, never tried to use it/turned it on before) saying that my computer was under

threat/infected with tracking software/spyware etc.

i'm not familiar with windows defender and it wanted me to buy the full version to remove everything so i ran

ad-aware to see if that could find this spyware and the scan results showed 34 coookies removed and 1 process

detected which would require a restart to remove.
i restarted and a blue screen (checkdisk?) popped up briefly before the whole thing booted up seemingly normal but

not all of my taskbar items loaded up like normal.
I wanted to run an AVG scan and download and run malware bytes but now anytime i try to run an application i get the

"open with" pop up box
Also, when i try to open shortcuts on my desktop (word, excel etc) i get an error pop up saying "application not

found" even thought they appear to be there in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10"

i also keep getting a pop up saying "C:\program files\java\jre6\libdeploy\jqs\ff\..\..\..\..\bin\jqsnotify.exe" application not found. this popped up a few times when i booted up and also when i tried opening firefox and i'm getting unresponsive script warnings in firefox

so anyone any ideas what's happened/what i've done and how to fix

Browntoa

boot into safe mode

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

Access System Restore from Safe Mode -

click Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance. On the left side of the screen under See Also, click System Restore.

then restore to an earler date

alexalexalex

Browntoa wrote: »

boot into safe mode

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

Access System Restore from Safe Mode -

click Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance. On the left side of the screen under See Also, click System Restore.

then restore to an earler date

marvelous, thanks for that. had a bit of trouble getting into safe mode cos i've got a dual boot with ubuntu but managed it

seems to be ok now, i've run ad-aware - no problems, running malwarebytes and will run AVG afterwards.

will all that be enough to sort the problem? any ideas what caused it in the first place?

aliEnRIK

IF malwarebytes finds anything, please post the full log (Its 'up to date' yes?)

bob_man_uk

what os are you using? defender is installed by default on windows 7 machines, but it is free, so asking you to pay for it is a sign of something nasty

kwikbreaks

It was installed by default in Vista too and could be downloaded for XP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Defender

It is free so I'll second the suggestion that this could well be malware masquerading as Defender.

bob_man_uk

just a quick google turned up this

sounds like somethign similar.

staggy

This is indeed - rogue malware.

There are various incarnations purporting to be anti virus software that gives a fake scan and lots of "threat" popups.

I had something very similar last week (work laptop running XP pro with Mcafee Total Protection service) rather than windows defender it came in as XP Antivirus 2010 - As I said same thing with a different name.

Fortunately it's not too aggressive, but it does act very defensively and tries to stop you from scanning and removing. It also stopped me from running exe files (initially). It's basically an attempt to extort cash from you by pretending you're infected (which you are) but offering a fake clean up program at a cost to you.

Malwarebytes should be all that is required to clean up (if you can get it to run)

Been around for ages - some info here
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivirus-2010

Glamazon

Browntoa wrote: »

boot into safe mode

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

Access System Restore from Safe Mode -

click Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance. On the left side of the screen under See Also, click System Restore.

then restore to an earler date

Does this get rid of the malware?
I have got the XP Antimalware 2010 coming up on my laptop and it won't let me on the internet to download any of the malwarebytes or anything. :mad:

Currently on PC and slowly going mad at how slow it is!

Any help gratefully received

macman

Glamazon wrote: »

Does this get rid of the malware?
I have got the XP Antimalware 2010 coming up on my laptop and it won't let me on the internet to download any of the malwarebytes or anything. :mad:

Currently on PC and slowly going mad at how slow it is!

Any help gratefully received

Download Malwarebytes on your PC, copy it to a flash drive and then install from that onto your laptop.

Lil306

I did type a reply to use Safe Mode with Windows Networking enabled and this would give you Internet Access but it wouldn't if the shell extensions are messed up.

Here's a possible solution to quickly repair the EXE shell if you don't go down the route of running anti-maleware

http://filext.com/faq/broken_exe_association.php