Computer Problem - any ideas?

[Peterlock]

Hi Everyone,

I've just emerged from the depths of computer ****! A little bruised and battered but back up and running.

I still can't figure out what may have happened so if anyone has a clue please let me know.

I turned off my computer, headed for bed. Remembered I had some e-mails to send out powered back up and noticed non of the icons appeared on my toolbar. No matter what program I clicked on from a short cut on my desktop I got an error message that said "Can not associate this file please create a file"

Rebooted many times, same thing tried to start programs from my start menu, same thing, it was like very single piece of software and all my files had vanished. There was no was for me to get to system restore I would get the same message.

Went into safe mode and tried to access windows repair - same message. Long story short at 3 AM I'm on the phone with Dell support did a full system restoration and of course lost all my data which I can re create over time or live without.

But I run a ZoneAlarm Plus fire wall, McAfee virus scan spyware programs Ad-Ware SE, spy sweeper and Spy-bot. All have up to date definitions and I ran scans that very day and turned up absolutely nothing.

Sorry for the long post I've been at this for 9 hours and am partially brain dead so excuse the rambling - Anyway any ideas what could have happened?

Peter

[Perry]

First off... sorry to hear you lost stuff.

My only comment here is you run a LOT of virus/spyware programs - way more than the typical PC owner. Perhaps there is a conflict somewhere or you downloaded a rogue program (virus).

Think back to day you first noticed the problem 'can not associate this file'. What did you dowload/install that day? Did you run any programs that update your Registry (all spyware removal programs do)? This will most likely narrow the search down to the source of the problem.

Of course Dell is going to have you do a full system restore. That's the easy way out. Too bad you didn't have an alternate system available to post here and have us step you through recovery.

[Kent]

Sounds like the exe became not associated as an executable application or perhaps the lnk (shortcut) extension became unlinked or more likely mislinked. I have seen this happen before, but I can't recall right now what caused it or what might be related. I would have looked specifically into a shell registry statement in Hkey Local Machine part of the registry. If that was pointed at something other than explorer.exe (normal default Windows manager), it could lead to certainly the problems as described above.

Edited to point out, this was my 2000th post in the system (not counting the pruned ones).