Suddenly can't run apps on my Winblows 8 pc....

[Heck 496]

.... but my anti-virus says there's no virus. And, of course, nothing I find as a solution on the net works. I can't even use the applets in Control Panel. I love Windows....

[+daddyairplanes 10,252]

Well your first problem is win 8.......

Win 7 and win 10 are ok be me though

[Fubar512 1,350]

Boot into safe mode with networking, by restarting your machine, and tapping the F8 key while it is starting. Once the boot menu appears, select "Safe Mode with Networking", as the start option.  Allow it to start.  Once it's up, try running your apps. Either way, download and install the free version of Malwarebytes from http://www.malwarebytes.org/ , and let it update and run.  Once it's finished, reboot your system, and see if the apps are now able to run in normal mode.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Fubar512

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

Did you update recently?
I twice had a similar issue. After some updates, every app just failed. I just deleted the updates and ignored them afterwards. 

[Heck 496]

Boot into safe mode with networking, by restarting your machine, and tapping the F8 key while it is starting. Once the boot menu appears, select "Safe Mode with Networking", as the start option.  Allow it to start.  Once it's up, try running your apps. Either way, download and install the free version of Malwarebytes from http://www.malwarebytes.org/ , and let it update and run.  Once it's finished, reboot your system, and see if the apps are now able to run in normal mode.

Tried to download and run this, but the system says it can't run on my pc, like any downloaded exe I try to run now. At other times, I get an error message that says the app isn't a valid %1 32 bit app.

 

Emp_Palpatine: How do you delete updates. Never tried to do it before. I'm even locked out of system restore. The stupid little windows shield emblem seems to be locking everything I want to use. I'm the only administrator on my computer, although, to Winblows, I'm only a local administrator and I seem to have lost my administrator privileges. I can't get in to unlock total Winblows admin privileges, because I can only run command prompt as a local app. 

 

Anyway, thanks for the help. Everyone here is great, as always, when another member has a problem. This is the one site I visit every day.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Heck

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

Well, dude, such a lock up looks a lot like a malware infection. Safe mode it is. 

[Heck 496]

Thanks, Folks. Did two different virus scans in safe mode. No virus or malware detected. Now to try squashing updates...

[MigBuster 2,884]

Have you got all the files you want to keep on a backup?

 

Do you have any other user accounts on the PC you can log in with (Or can you create one to see if you get the same issues?)

 

Also Have a look in the programs and features to see if there is anything you don't recognize - only uninstall after checking what it is.

 

Your anti virus program should be logging things somewhere - see if you can find the log.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Worse case scenario, you'll have to run system restore, and restore your system back to date prior to this issue.  This can be accomplished from safe mode, as well.

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

Thanks, Folks. Did two different virus scans in safe mode. No virus or malware detected. Now to try squashing updates...

Unfortunately, anti-virus aren't always able to detect some threats.

 

I strongly advise you to go to some helpers board (there are a LOT on the net) and ask for help. An "hijack this" log will probably see what your anti-virus did not. 

I am affraid you problem is far more than some messy update. When I had it, it was just a matter of minutes : some apps won't work or gave an error message. Just go into task manager and kill the update. Yours is... worse.

 

I strongly advise, too, NOT TO RESTORE until you know what's going on. Malwares use to hide in the restore system, just to be sure to reinfect again. Or they just kill that too. 

 

So, in my opinion : Save what can be saved;

Go to some helpers board and ask for help. They will ask you hijack this logs and stuffs, and if it's a curable thing, give you the "how to".

You may indeed have to reinstall your whole system to solve the issue in the end, nevertheless... 

Edited November 27, 2014 by Emp_Palpatine

[+Erik 1,812]

As a side note. If you can remove the hard drive and connect it to another machine and then scan that drive by itself it will usually detect anything on that drive since the OS and malware isn't loaded. Since you're just connecting the drive to another machine that machine will just recognize the drive as a bunch of files on another disk. Also this type of scan is much faster and much more reliable. Most antivirus have the ability to scan just a single location and in your case it would be the new drive you attached which is the suspect drive.

 

If that's not an option for you most antivirus will have a boot disk that can do the same thing but without having to load any part of the OS. These would be my recommended solutions regardless of which antivirus you use most of them will handle it just fine.

 

If the scan comes back negative then you can consider verifying (repairing) the OS with an install disk.

 

Lastly would be the restore method as this is usually not an option anyway as malware usually shuts that down on first run. If you try to restore and there are no restore points or if it's turned off you'll know you've got malware on your machine.

 

The Last Hail Mary should be reloading an operating system and if you do that backup first, zero the drive, then reload.

 

Hope that helps, good luck.

[Fubar512 1,350]

 

Lastly would be the restore method as this is usually not an option anyway as malware usually shuts that down on first run. If you try to restore and there are no restore points or if it's turned off you'll know you've got malware on your machine.

 

 

Eric, I have had to resort to performing a system restore on at least three PCs in the last few months, including Wrench's system.  While the system restore option can be disabled by some malware, I find that in most cases, it is not.  And while some malware can "hide" within a restore point, I find that instances of that happening have grown quite rare in the last few years.

 

At any rate, going in through safe mode usually works, as it prevents the vast majority of malware from loading files and/or drivers, that hinder one's attempt to remove them.

[+Erik 1,812]

Ec

 

There's different ways to mitigate this problem. Certainly restoring to a backup is one of them. In my past experience it's been hit and miss and not always foolproof. I always recommend slaving the drive and scanning it first, then restoring as needed if available.