Sometimes when I double click a file to open it with the default program associated with it, or right click it to open it with some other program, the software informs me that it can’t locate the file

The above error pops up if I try opening the file (or any other file) by right clicking it and selecting Paint shop pro. If I just double click the file, it opens fine in the default windows picture and fax viewer.

If I browse to the cd drive and double click on the exe which was supposed to be executed, it works fine. It also works fine the first time I insert the cd…it runs the exe using the autorun, but if I leave the cd in there and try to run it in future by double clicking on the optical drive icon, I get the above error.

I’ve noticed the same problems with a few other softwares too…its certainly not the software at fault…some windows setting…any recommendations?

Thanks.

Have you tried rebooting in safe mode to see if its one of your background apps interfering?

nopes, never tried that…will give it a try and let you know

same problem in safe mode too…

:(

I Googled “windows cannot find files” (without the quotes) and found a web page but its in reference to windows98, it might work for you (I’m assuming you are not using windows98). web page

Google results for “windows cannot find files”

Thanks…I tried that too, but did not get a solution in any of the several pages that I visited.

Did you run a spyware scanner just before this happened?

It’s been happening for quite a few days, but I didn’t bother earlier…however it’s become quite irritating, so I decided to post it here. I did run ad-aware a few moments ago and it found like 80 or so tracking cookies (it finds only tracking cookies now…earlier it used to find other kinds of spyware…may be the internal windows firewall blocks the others?)...ne ways, I deleted them, but no luck yet. I also downloaded spybot search and destroy and that found a few tracking cookies but not much help otherwise.

I have noticed another problem too….related or not, hard to say…

Quite often, after I exit windows media player, my system slows down a lot, if I press ctrl+alt+del, wmplayer.exe is still there, so I shut it down and then everything returns to normal.

:cry:  :cry:

On one of the other forums I visited, someone replied to a similar post and said there may be a trojan on the system, so he/she gave a link to pandasoftware’s website and on running a partial scan it found cydoor in the windows\system32\adcache folder. I manually deleted that folder, but that didn’t help either.

For the paint shop pro problem, I changed the file association for jpeg’s as well, but no luck. When I changed it back to windows picture and fax viewer, the files started opening find again. They open fine with photoshop too

:?  :?

Windows Firewall doesn’t block cookies, it works on a transport level.

At this point its hard for any troubleshooter to tell exactly whats wrong with your comp without more info about what threads you have running, what you may have installed and uninstalled in the past, creating conflicts, etc.

If you suspect that malicious software is whats messing up your computer, I’d just recommend a format and reinstall, followed by stringent computer sanitation efforts on your new install.  Here are a few applications I use to keep the box running clean:

- Proxomitron (Free local html proxy which parses your incoming html and cleans out malicious scripts and unwanted markup [i.e. popups].)
- Zonealarm (Very good free firewall with full in and outbound permission control.)
- Norton Anti-virus (Commerical virus scanner.  Should be redundant if you don’t download any suspicious exes or pirate software.  Better safe than sorry though)
- Adaware Personal (Free on-demand ad/spyware remover.  Should be redundant if you have Proxomitron installed.)
- SpywareBlaster (Free pre-emptive spyware eliminator.  Blacklists spyware in your browser before it can install itself.)
- Firefox (Free mozilla based browser.  In the meantime regarded as safer than IE since most exploits are IE-based.)

Burn service pack 2 and all these tools to a CD and leave your computer disconnected when you reinstall.

Of course common sense should also be exercised too.  If an application is free, make sure you read the privacy info and EULA carefully for spyware notices.  Don’t install any “warez”, since oft times it can contain trojan packages.  Ctrl+Alt+Del every few weeks and note the names of all the threads running.  If a new thread name pops up that you don’t recall installing, google it and see if its malicious.

Thanks, but I don’t want to format and reinstall…I’ll just have to live with the problem and dig around a bit more on google and hope to find a solution

I tried the same thing on my TR and surprisingly I got the same error when double clicking on the cd drive or when opening an image file with paint shop pro. I forgot to mention one thing…when I double clicked the icon for the optical drive, it was actually the shortcut for the optical drive that I had placed on the desktop. If I went into My computer and double clicked the optical drive icon there, the autorun would work fine, and the .exe file would open without problems. So, I went into the shortcut properties for the icon I had placed on the desktop and noticed that the field “Start in” was empty. So, I simply entered “I:\” (the path for the optical drive) and clicked OK and now the cd runs fine even from that shortcut on the desktop.

However, the other (major) problems still persist. I forgot to mention one more related (I think) problem. On occasions, when I downloaded a zip file and selected to open it directly instead of saving it, after it would get downloaded, winzip would open with no files inside it. If I saved the file (say to the desktop) and then opened it, the files would be there. And, this problem doesn’t always happen :xeno:

It sounded like you have registry problems.. Maybe if you could run any Windows System Utility, it might fix some probelms.. Like Norton SystemWorks, specifically the WinDoctor..  And restart after it’s done..

Already tried Norton windoctor…didn’t fix the problem

[quote author=“Anonymous”]Maybe this will help - a program called Always Right , it will find any files and folders that may have been moved on your hard drive and help you correct registry entries that point to them.

I found it at download.cnet.com by searching, “file find fix” ( results | new search ).

Hope it helps.

That was from me, I forgot to sign in.

Thanks, I was trying to download it, but received some error saying that the server load was too high, so I’ll try later

...and hopefully it will work

Didn’t work :(