When I try to run msconfig or MSpaint in Windows XP, nothing happens. The program apparently loads off the hard drive and into memory, and the process name appears in the task manager process list - although not in the 'applications' tab. Yet nothing happens. There may be other programs which won't work either, but nothing that I have noticed yet.
Rebooting did not resolve the issue.
I first noticed it a few days ago when I tried to load MSpaint. It didn't work so I rebooted first of all; no different. Then I thought I'd have a look at msconfig to see if there was anything dodgy starting up which shouldn't be. msconfig's failure to start made me realise something is very amiss here.
I then ran a full system virus scan, which came up clean. I also did scans with Hijack this, Adaware 2007 and Windows Defender. They found nothing wrong either.
Any ideas what this could be, and what else I could try? Reinstalling Windows isn't something I am keen to do unless absolutely necessary.
By the way, that was with XP SP2. I just tried putting SP3 (RC2) on to see if it made any difference, but it hasn't.
Rebooting did not resolve the issue.
I first noticed it a few days ago when I tried to load MSpaint. It didn't work so I rebooted first of all; no different. Then I thought I'd have a look at msconfig to see if there was anything dodgy starting up which shouldn't be. msconfig's failure to start made me realise something is very amiss here.
I then ran a full system virus scan, which came up clean. I also did scans with Hijack this, Adaware 2007 and Windows Defender. They found nothing wrong either.
Any ideas what this could be, and what else I could try? Reinstalling Windows isn't something I am keen to do unless absolutely necessary.
By the way, that was with XP SP2. I just tried putting SP3 (RC2) on to see if it made any difference, but it hasn't.
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I made a new account, logged off (without rebooting), logged into the new account and everything works.