run.exe association

[subdismal]

Alright, I'm posting this on behalf of my friend. I tried my best to help him with whatever I could, but I'm out of options.

Basically, here's the problem:

My friend downloaded a file that was infected with a virus, which he was unaware of, and it periodically restarted his computer manually (without him doing anything), he lost keyboard control, and now it won't let him run any applications.

When he tries to open an app. he's getting an error message saying that Windows cannot locate run.exe which it is associating with executable files. I looked in the My Computer folder, under View > Folder Options > File Types and could not figure out what to change so that Windows is not associating .exe files to be ran with run.exe. I gathered from another source through a Google search that run.exe does not exist typically on Windows as a crucial file (I did not know this before hand).

So, basically I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to get his PC back to normal without him having to reformat his hard drive. We would both appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.

 

[Green Man]

Do you see .exe listed in the registered file types? Delete it. *.exe files shouldn't be opened with any other program because they are executables.
When I first read your post, I was wondering how you were going to open explorer.exe since it's a .exe file. I wonder how that worked.

 

[Lorne]

Theres a dos registry program you can run that and force in an older version, I got hit with a simular virus when I was running 98xx, I got rid of the virus in seconds I know I got hit but it did its damage and I couldnt fix it within Windowz.
The funny is I just updated the Virus checker and it didnt detect it but found they relieced an update the next day that did.

Run the program and then the first thing you do when you get Win up , Update virus program asap and clear it out or format it all and avoid it going farther, Being a Zombie can suck.