Application Not Found errors

My brother is having a Dell laptop running with Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003. I keep this laptop updated with all recent patches from Windows Update. There was no problem until yesterday night but today morning when he booted his laptop, he found that none of his programs are running.

When I checked the laptop and tried running any Office application, no matter MS Word, Excel, PPT or anything, I use to get an error message saying “Application Not Found” whereas I can see their icons on my desktop. Similarly when I try opening McAfee Security Center , it says "Choose the program you want to use to open this file". For troubleshooting when I went to Control Panel and tried opening anything, for example “Add and Remove Programs”, it gives me an error saying “c:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe Application Not Found.”

When I checked the directory I can see rundll32 file is still there. Any idea what has went wrong with this laptop suddenly overnight? How can I get rid of these problems?

To me it seems like Virus or malware problem. I will suggest you to better remove McAfee SC and install some another firewall/antivirus, and perform a deep scan.Apart from this click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. Here see if you have anything listed. It should be there. Simply copy and paste the error here.

I just wanted to confirm that Doug Knox's fix worked for me, since no one else bothered to take the time to confirm this fix.

If the problem seems to be that Windows doesn't know what to do or how to open .exe files, then this is the fix for you!

i too would just like to add that the fix linked up above worked for me, so i'd def recommend it if you're having the same problem

Event Type: Error
Event Source: crypt32
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8
Date: 7/15/2009
Time: 3:00:47 PM
User: N/A
Computer: D-A6CC6210C4E24
Description:
Failed auto update retrieval of third-party root list sequence number from: <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootseq.txt> with error: The specified server cannot perform the requested operation.

I HAVE 2,380+ ERRORS LOGGED

I have a lot of application where when I clinic on my desktop icons, i get
Application Not Found and am sent to an "Open With" box with a list of applications. Nothing will open.

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 4/4/2010 7:56:12 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: EmilyLindsey-PC
Description:
Faulting application name: firefox.exe, version: 1.9.1.3642, time stamp: 0x4b302c34
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0xda0
Faulting application start time: 0x01cad459b2ab4a4a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 07312abe-404e-11df-bb2c-00266c39c024
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-04-05T00:56:12.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>12297</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>EmilyLindsey-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>firefox.exe</Data>
<Data>1.9.1.3642</Data>
<Data>4b302c34</Data>
<Data>unknown</Data>
<Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>00000000</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>00000000</Data>
<Data>da0</Data>
<Data>01cad459b2ab4a4a</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe</Data>
<Data>unknown</Data>
<Data>07312abe-404e-11df-bb2c-00266c39c024</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

I Have 2,580 Events

What was Doug Knox's Fix? I do not believe it is visible anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlackieWhite92

What was Doug Knox's Fix? I do not believe it is visible anymore.

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Well, you just need to go here to Doug KNox's Windows® XP File Association Fixes and run 9th down on left... EXE File Association Fix ... the EXE not EML one. There are also many threads made on same issues, just check the suggestions given here - http://forums.techarena.in/windows-x...rt/1360439.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-x...ort/746133.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-x...ort/941232.htm