win7 - unable to run any .exe files i download (but can run old ones)

[Ewok]

This is basically a fresh install done yesterday and then updated by a couple hundred updates fro windows update. at some point I have become unable to run any .exe file that I download. Double clicking on it does absolutely nothing at all. If I make a shortcut to the file and double click that, again it does nothing. If I right click and select "open", it does nothing. If I right click and select run as admin, it then runs.

Now it doesnt do this with ALL .exe files, anything already on the hdd I can double click and run just fine, but anything NEW that I download simply does nothing when I try to double click it.

It is obviously not virus related, its something somehow to do with permissions. I am using the one and only account on here which is an account in the administrators group so permissions shouldnt be an issue but apparently are somehow.

 

[Ewok]

jesus!! installed another bunch of windows "updates", suddenly world of warcraft wont even load anymore. and I strongly suspect it was one of the earlier batch of about 200 updates that caused the permissions problem. funnily enough, with UAC on, it just crashes when trying to run it, if i right click and run as admin then it runs ok, and with uac off, it runs ok anyway!!!

it kinda seems like it somehow doesnt see me as the admin, or certain parts of it are not seeing me as the admin.

I created a test user account as an admin account and that seems to work fine. so somehow the permissions need fixing on my account.

 

[Philtor]

Time to run the system file checker as something is not right here. Open a command prompt as an Admin user and enter sfc /scannow and hit enter. Have you installed all the updates at this point however?

 

[sachinbadiani]

Please see my thread about the windows update. You will need to uninstall one or two of the updates - the one is listed in my post.

It should work afterwards. Please keep us updated on your progress