Hi Guys,

Clicking applications to start, such as word, windows multimedia player, yahoo messenger, spybot, adaware, notepad, etc, etc generates a windows error message:

cannot find the file 'C:\WINNT\system32\<filename>.exe' (or one if its components). Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available.

I've checked that the path and filenames are correct, however I don't know which library files to check and it seems to be a massive excercise!

Can any of you guys help with this?

Cheers

Guys,

I've subsequently checked, the only programs running are IE and my internet dialer.

I ran Norton AV yesterday and it found the optix virus which I removed. Could this all have been caused by that? If so any ideas on what can be done?

Cheers.

A virus could have destroyed these files.

Is the path defined properly in enviromental variables?  Have you used the search tool to see if they are even on the drive? 

HomeAlone,

What do you mean? If you mean run that command... It also doesn't work.

Cheers

Hi Rob,

During a search for mspaint.exe (one of the apps that doesn't work), it found two entries:

C:\WINNT\system32\mspaint.exe

C:\WINNT\system32\dllcache\mspaint.exe

I'm not sure what I should do.

Cheers

I'd suggest the following:

• Insert your XP CD (or slipstream CD if you are using SP1) and go to Start - Run and type: sfc /scannow (and then press ENTER). The system will look for system files that are missing, damaged or altered and replace them. If that doesn't fix the problem, then


• Try a repair installation. Boot to the XP CD and choose the second repair option (not the first - that will only send you to the Recovery Console). XP will reinstall on top of itself but will not overwrite the reigstry and you won't have to reinstall your programs.

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the advice, the only problem is I'm running windows 2000, will this work with that also?

Cheers