Windows 7 .exe files are opening with explorer.exe

[tcepsuseht]

so..i have windows 7 home premium, its on my toshiba satellite laptop. and for some reason when i turn on my computer it just wont load all the way and creates an infinite loop of explorer.exe processes, and i looked at the default programs for it and thats why...and now .exe doesnt show up in my list of default programs so i cant change how it opens...and the registry everything was fine according to my research....so...any ideas?

basically my icons on the desktop all have the windows explorer picture on them and every .exe file on my computer opens with ...well it doesnt open at all but it creates an infinite amount of explorer.exe processes in task manager.

Help please.

thanks in advance

 

[reghakr]

Hello and welcome to tyhe windows7forums.

This is a good indication of a virus, Run a complete virus scan

If it removes all traces, the .exes should work,

BTW, you did't associate .exe's with Windows Explorer, did you?,

 

[tblount]

Click Start and type Associations and select Change the file types... you can see modify Internet Explorer

you may have to follow these instructions:

Link Removed - Not Found

 

[tcepsuseht]

nope. it started out with me being sleep deprived lol. i was going too fast and instead of hitting one button i hit the one next to it, while opening a .exe file...so that made them all open with notepad, so i restarted and this is how it ended up. i restarted because of an update to my antivirus, and when i started again it had the explorer icons. i did look and yes it is linked directly to explorer.exe. i did a virus scan and everything right before i got ahead of myself and didnt get any results of a virus. but yes i did hit the make every exe open with notepad on accident. but not sure exactly how it all went to explorer.exe...of course my computer was left alone and on with other people in the house who like to fiddle with things they dont know....but i highly doubt anyone touched it.

and Thanks for the welcome to the site

edit/ sorry i didnt notice the last response, i will try that and post back. thanks

 

[tcepsuseht]

tblount, that link you posted didnt seem to work actually. but it sparked my mind (normally im the one getting hired to fix computers, because unlike my previous posts i know what to do most of the time this thing just had me so stumped for some reason). but thanks to this awesome website's fast members and helpful ideas, i had the idea of creating a .reg file. i found this online:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@="exefile"
"Content Type"="application/x-msdownload"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,\
00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,\
32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,30,00,31,00,35,00,36,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open]
"EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runasuser]
@="@shell32.dll,-50944"
"Extended"=""
"SuppressionPolicyEx"="{F211AA05-D4DF-4370-A2A0-9F19C09756A7}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\runasuser\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{ea72d00e-4960-42fa-ba92-7792a7944c1d}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]
@="Compatibility"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Compatibility]
@="{1d27f844-3a1f-4410-85ac-14651078412d}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.exe]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.exe]
"FullDetails"="prop:System.PropGroup.Description;System.FileDescription;System.ItemTypeText;System.FileVersion;System.Software.ProductName;System.Software.ProductVersion;System.Copyright;*System.Category;*System.Comment;System.Size;System.DateModified;System.Language;*System.Trademarks;*System.OriginalFileName"
"InfoTip"="prop:System.FileDescription;System.Company;System.FileVersion;System.DateCreated;System.Size"
"TileInfo"="prop:System.FileDescription;System.Company;System.FileVersion;System.DateCreated;System.Size"

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):


if it wasnt for all of your help i would still be tearing my hair out over this. Thank you guys. much appreciated, this site is now going to my bookmarks just incase i can help someone in the future on here.
and i hope you dont mind i posted that up, as its a great fix for anyone with the same problem down the road.
Thank you guys again.

 

[tblount]

it's simple to create a reg file,, just copy and paste the reg file text you posted here and give it a name with .reg extension. you may have to click Start and type Hide and select show or hide file extensions so that your can rename .txt to .reg

It may be easier to click Start and type Restore and select Restore your computer to an earlier time... back to before the extensions were confused.

 

[tcepsuseht]

true. but every time i tried to merge the .reg file even though it said "registry entry" as a description it wouldnt let me. i had to do it via recovery console and went to command prompt, open reg edit that way because thats the only way it would open. but it worked.

by the way, system restore doesnt work with this problem. i tried it.

 

[reghakr]

You need to saver the registry script in ASCI format

 

[tblount]

You need to saver the registry script in ASCI format

Excellet.... I would never never never have thought that he may not be doing that. I automatically assume eveyone wold be using notepad, but if they used a word processor they reg file would contain printer codes and whatnot and it would never merge.

buit here is something that really has me puzzled.... consider that ...without bragging... me and you are a least above average when it comes to matters of tweaking the registry... how long do you think it would take you to manually make all those changes he had listed in his registry file? It would take me quite a while, maybe a couple hours and then I would be very suspicious of making a typing error when making all those modifications manually, yet he says he ran regedit and did it like it was as easy as swiping your credit card at the gas station. So when he says he "opened regedit" and did it that way.. did he import it? If he did, and it worked, then it had to have been in ascii (pure text) format?
Right?

Or, he just "thought" he did it. Either way I have no idea as to what actually happend.... or why it would merge/import from recovery mode but not when the os was loaded. Perhaps he'll shed more light.