Aaron
December 5th 03, 11:05 PM
>-----Original Message-----
>Yesterday I came home to find that I cannot access
>ANYTHING on the computer -
>all the icons and folders are there, but when I click on
>them, I get an error message -
>either the file path cannot be found (for most of
>the .exe files) or I get the "(null)' message -
>
>I have tried to restore my files - to no avail
>
>Any suggestions? I have a new Gateway computer -
>Any help is appreciated -
>
>Many thanks!
>Colette
>.
Not really sure how to dig into this one, first your
inability to run executables is probably due to file
association corruptions (or FAC, doesn't that sound
doctoree? hehe). Windows and before that DOS uses file
extensions like .txt .exe .com to give it a clue on what
to do with the file. Those mappings (extensions to
actions) seem to no longer be working on your machine.
These settings typically do not just go bad, they are
usually broken by someone. Viruses are normally the
culprit, but not always (12 year old kids who think they
know how to work a computer tend to be leading causes for
FAC as well, hehe). That all being said you can try to
follow http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_easy_file.htm
which provides a default list of file associations and
steps to put it back into your system. From there you
can also give a looksee at
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
which will give your system a free looksee to tell if
there is something untoward already in progress.
Finally the (Null)' message has got me stumped, not sure
what you mean by it, what is the exact error message?
Mebe someone else could jump in here and give us some
insight to this error.
a
>Yesterday I came home to find that I cannot access
>ANYTHING on the computer -
>all the icons and folders are there, but when I click on
>them, I get an error message -
>either the file path cannot be found (for most of
>the .exe files) or I get the "(null)' message -
>
>I have tried to restore my files - to no avail
>
>Any suggestions? I have a new Gateway computer -
>Any help is appreciated -
>
>Many thanks!
>Colette
>.
Not really sure how to dig into this one, first your
inability to run executables is probably due to file
association corruptions (or FAC, doesn't that sound
doctoree? hehe). Windows and before that DOS uses file
extensions like .txt .exe .com to give it a clue on what
to do with the file. Those mappings (extensions to
actions) seem to no longer be working on your machine.
These settings typically do not just go bad, they are
usually broken by someone. Viruses are normally the
culprit, but not always (12 year old kids who think they
know how to work a computer tend to be leading causes for
FAC as well, hehe). That all being said you can try to
follow http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_easy_file.htm
which provides a default list of file associations and
steps to put it back into your system. From there you
can also give a looksee at
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
which will give your system a free looksee to tell if
there is something untoward already in progress.
Finally the (Null)' message has got me stumped, not sure
what you mean by it, what is the exact error message?
Mebe someone else could jump in here and give us some
insight to this error.
a