So this is new to me... I've had a lot of problems with XP over the years, but here is something that I've never encountered.
Due to Avast moving a number of system files (from the system32 folder which cause a log in/out loop among other problems) I had to do a system repair using the XP install boot disk. After completing this I was able to get users going again. After a brief period of happiness, the User discovered that a commonly used program wasn't working. When I checked this out I found that the .BAT launcher was getting a "cannot find file '....exe'" error. I looked into this more and recently discovered that NONE of the .EXE files located in this particular directory can be used. Every one of them returns a "cannot find file" error even when double clicking. This is NOT the case in any other folder so far. The other files (.BAT and a number of custom extensions) work fine, but the .EXEs don't... :/
I've tried looking all over the registry and have not been able to find any problems. I ran "sfc /scannow" just to make sure that the system was still stable, and it checked out fine...
Another thing that I noticed, one of the programs' directories "dlc" is supposed to be located on C:\ root... (which it is) in doing a file search I discovered that there is ALSO a copy in the system32 folder!?
This doesn't belong here at all, and it's not just a shared file name - it has(d) all the same files too...
If anyone can think of anything that might be helpful I'd really appreciate it. I'm at a loss of ideas, so anything is appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
kyle_engineer