Weird Problem with .EXE's on 2003 File Server

[tech_guy]

We've got a 2003 file server and I've just come to launch some system programs to do so housekeeping and it looks like the file associations have changed / gone awry.

 

I can't work it out though as it looks like all the system programs like regedit.exe, msconfig.exe, iexplore.exe, etc, have been told to be opened my MSPaint, as the error message says they can't be read and that it's not a valid bitmap file.

 

I've had a look at the relevant registry entries under classes, exes but can't see anything wrong.

 

Any suggestions?

[pooley]

Virus scan comes to mind fella, doesn't sound good.

[tech_guy]

Done that and it's clear.

[saundersmatt]

Can't say i've had that problem on 2003 but have had it under 7.

The Vista fix at the bottom of this page worked for me.

 

Matt

[tech_guy]

Can't say i've had that problem on 2003 but have had it under 7.

The Vista fix at the bottom of this page worked for me.

 

Matt

 

Thanks for the link, Matt. We had compared those parts of the registry with another Windows 2003 box and they were all the same.

 

We discovered that the problem only existed with a particular admin account on the machine, so trundled off to HKCU/software/microsoft/windows/current version/explorer/FileExts and found that there was a entry for .exe with mspaint.exe set under OPENWITHLIST...........! I deleted it and everything is now back to normal. How it happened in the first place we haven't ascertained yet.