Virus attack? Can't open .exe files

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My PC was under some sort of trojan or worm attack last night.

Some random scans started running in the background and ended up getting the blue screen of death before my PC restarted itself.

After the reboot, my antivirus programs alerted me that harmful malware had been deleted.

"Cool" I thought to myself, but it wasn't about to end.

It turns out now that I can't run any programs on my desktop.

For example, when I click on the Mozilla Firefox shortcut, I get a box with an "Open with" title giving me several options. I have to manually select the program from it's directory before I can run it.

I looked this up on some forums and it seems like I can't run .exe files. Something is wrong with the registry it seems.

I don't have any idea how to fix this problem.

I don't have an original Windows XP boot disk from which I can format Windows and re-install it.

Any ideas?

Just tried to run System Restore and that won't run either.

Apparently I need to select the program to "Open With" in order to run it.

This is getting serious.

I can't run even the most basic programs without going to the root directory.

Edit: This is pretty much the same problem I have right now.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/ ... 05453.html

If system restore doesn't work and you can't reinstall windows, I don't know what to tell you. You're totally screwed. Could you maybe download Linux and install that on another partition? I think you're going to need to do a complete re-installation of your operating system, and there aren't many other free alternatives.

Aw crap, I was afraid of this.

One of my dad's friends helped me install XP on my system and he could probably re-install it if I contacted him about this.

It's really too bad that this virus f-up everything on my computer.

Isn't there some sort of program that fixes the registry?

Anything?

XP is pretty old, and lacks a lot of the new security features. It will always be more vulnerable than any other operating system you can obtain today.

To fixing the registry: I do not have enough Windows experience to say. My guess is that it is possible, but extremely difficult and risks breaking something else.

The best bet is to boot a Linux livecd, use it to copy your files to an external drive (passing them through a virus scanner like ClamAV first, since the malware may be hiding somewhere in your documents) and then format the drive and install a new OS. My recommendation would be Linux, but if you must have Windows you are better off with a newer version, preferably Windows 7. XP is nearly 10 years old now- it doesn't have the ability to defend itself adequately.

Never mind guys.

Problem solved.

Registry was fixed after I contacted a programmer about this problem.

Appreciate your help on this thread. Thanks.

Oops. Missed this thread.

Glad it got fixed.

Any problem continues in the future, though, and that programmer isn't available, feel free to PM me.

Same to all the guys here having issues with malware on Windows.

Install Malware Bytes and update it. Then disconnect your PC from the internet then do a scan with Malware Bytes.
If that does not find anything download Kaspersky (Free Trial) and that should get rid of it.
To install these press F8 during boot and press Safe Mode with networking and tell me how it goes.

The Windows NT kernel is a .exe file. How are you even running Windows if you can't run .exe files?

I'd guess that for the virus to be active, it requires a running OS - therefore the kernel and associated parts comprising the OS are left alone.
A parasite requires a host to function.