Fix “This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action” in …
Few days ago there was a newly signed up user in forum requesting for help. Initially his computer had some error messages that pops up during Windows startup and he tried using some third party software to fix it. However it ended up making his computer unable to run any exe programs at all including the icons on desktop. He was very sure that he only changed the ProgramFilesDir value from C: to D: in registry. From what I know, this only changes the default location of Program Files where software are installed but no matter what, we all tried to help him undo the changes he made. I showed him how to run registry editor but he wasn’t able to as he kept on getting the error message “ This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action “.
After spending a few hours trying to help and without any success, then I started thinking maybe this problem is caused by another factor which I’ve encountered before in Windows XP. Somehow a virus managed to corrupt the .exe association in registry causing the user unable to run any programs. I used TeamViewer to remotely connect to his computer and tried running this command “ assoc.exe=exefile ” in command prompt which should fix the problem but don’t know why this command has been denied. I checked his user account and he is an administrator. I then tried to use DougKnox ’s EXE registry fix but that failed too because I wasn’t able to import the .reg file since it requires regedit.exe. I also converted the .reg file into .exe file which can imported into registry without using regedit and that too didn’t work.
After 2 days, I am glad that I finally managed to fix the problem.
It turns out to be a corrupted .exe association and the reason those steps I taken didn’t work is because the Windows Vista registry location for exe association is different from XP. Obviously using the XP fix cannot work on Vista!
When you have a corrupted exe association, you definitely cannot use any registry editor to fix it because it is impossible to run it in the first place. So here are a few methods you can try:
1. Run command prompt and type assoc.exe=exefile (If you get access denied error, try step 2)
2. Download this .reg file and run it. Make sure you right click and select Save As. (If you cannot import the .reg file because Windows cannot find the registry editor, then try step 3)
3. Open command prompt and type the following command REG IMPORT vista-7-fixexe.reg . Make sure you’ve already CD to the directory where the .reg file is. (If you have problems getting this to work, try step 4)
4. Download the EXE compiled version of the registry file above and run it. Although it doesn’t make sense to run this exe file since most of the exe files are blocked, but this is the one that fixed the user’s computer. (If this couldn’t fix it, try step 5)
5. Microsoft Fix It has an automated way to fixing the exe association problem. Simply download this MicrosoftFixit50194.msi file and run it.
If done correctly, it should fix the problem instantly and no reboot is required. Now I will always remember that whatever works in XP doesn’t necessarily works on Vista and 7.
Technorati Tags: exe , association , vista , windows , virus
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SMBv2 Nuke Crashes Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008 with BlueScreen of Death
About 15 years ago during Windows 95 era, there were a lot of “winnukes” which can cause Windows to blue screen. Microsoft did release patches to fix those bugs but during that time Internet was still very new and not many people know that there are updates to fix those problems. There was no Windows Update to scan what your system needed to update. Then came Windows 98 and most of the winnukes were patched. However I still remembered that a team called X-Coders has came up with IGMP nukes which can also crashes Windows 98.
Finally XP came and it is considered to be one of the most stable Windows that Microsoft ever released! As stable as it is, hackers still able to find flaw in their system. That time there was another nuker called SMBDie which crashes Windows XP computers by sending a specially crafted SMB request.
It definitely worked because I was pretty much “abusing” it with my childish teenager mindset. I didn’t crash just anyone but only to a particular guy who was downloading a lot with Limewire and hogging the Internet connection until none of the housemates can use the Internet. If I am not wrong, that bug was patched in SP1.
Just when we thought the latest Windows Vista and 7 is safe, Laurent Gaffié discovered an exploit that can cause a remote computer to get a bluescreen of death and released a proof of concept on 9th September. I only got to know about it few days ago because on the day the exploit was released, I was busy packing my bags and getting ready for my honeymoon.
I found 2 compiled version of the exploit and this is how it looks like. This one has an interface for you to enter the victim’s IP address and clicking the OK button will send a specially crafted packet to the remote computer.
The second one is command line application. Just enter the IP address after the program to launch the attack.
I’ve tried to attack my own computer running Windows Vista SP1 and the computer shows a blue screen and auto rebooted. When Windows is booted up, I got a notification window that says “Window has recovered from an unexpected shutdown” with the problem event name “BlueScreen”.
The good news is Windows Firewall is able to block this attack. Thank God that all Windows Firewall is turned on by default or else a lot of people will get nuked by another wave of SMBDie. Looks like Windows Firewall is not so useless after all… Windows XP and 2000 are NOT affected as they don’t have the SMB2.0 driver. You can also update your Windows to be patched from this exploit. If you take a look at this video , Immunity Inc has made a working exploit of SMBv2 that can run commands on the remote system!
Technorati Tags: smb , nuke , windows , exploit , security
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Loading Unsigned Drivers in Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit (x64)
Thanks for all the comments, now I know that there are hacks that can make Windows 32-bit “address/recognize” more than 4GB of memory but you still wouldn’t be able to use it. To be able to fully utilize more than 4GB, you will still need a 64-bit of Windows. Most common problem that people face when using a 64-bit Windows is loading unsigned drivers. It seems that Microsoft has forgotten end users when it introduced a very restricted module of driver signature enforcement in Windows Vista and Windows 7. All drivers and system files must be digitally verified or they cannot run when using both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. This is an example of unable to load PeerGuardian with the error message “Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file” because of an unsigned driver.
From what I heard, the certificate to perform this signing costs from $300-$500 USD per year. Not every software developer can afford that especially when their software is free. Fortunately there are ways to force the unsigned drivers to load in x64 versions of Windows 7 and Vista.
There are some tutorial suggesting that typing this command “bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS” in command prompt will do the job but it didn’t work on my Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Probably Microsoft has rolled out some updates which disables DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS option.
There are still a few working ways to load unsigned drivers though. The first method is to continuously press F8 when Windows is booted up until you get the Advanced Boot Options, then select “ Disable Driver Signature Enforcement “.
The problem about this method is you have to do that EACH Time when you boot up Windows and if you forgot to select this option, you won’t get to load the unsigned drivers and the software won’t work.
Second method is to use ReadyDriver Plus by Mr. Orange Sunshine, an enhanced version of the original ReadyDriver by Uhlik. It does the same thing as the first method by automatically selecting disable driver signature enforcement. It modifies the Vista Bootloader to load ReadyDriver, and then makes the appropriate selection to disable Driver Enforcement, based on what you choose to install. This tool worked perfectly on my Windows 7 x64.
If you don’t like your boot loader to be modified, then you should use Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider . This is how you can use DSEO to sign and load the unverified drivers. Run DSEO, click Next, click Yes, select “ Enable Test Mode ” and click Next.
You should get a confirmation window telling you that Test Mode has been ENABLED. Click the OK button to go back to the DSEO window. Now select “ Sign a System File ” and click Next. You will now have to type in the specific filename including full path and click OK. For PeerGuardian, it is “C:Program FilesPeerGuardian2pgfilter.sys”. Restart your computer and the driver is now loaded.
You will notice that there is a watermark at the bottom right of the screen saying Test Mode.
That is normal after you’ve used Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider to enable the Test Mode. If you disable Test Mode using DSEO, you won’t be able to load the unsigned drivers. In short, you will need to be in Test Mode in order to load the unsigned drivers. If you can’t stand seeing the Test Mode watermark, you can use Remove Watermark to take away the watermark. Just download, run RemoveWatermarkX64.exe and then type the letter Y . Restart your computer to take effect. If the watermark is still there after patching, run the tool again and this time hit the R key to rebuilt MUI cache. Restart and the watermark should be gone by now.
Technorati Tags: driver , unsigned , dseo , readydriver , windows , x64
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Loading Unsigned Drivers in Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit (x64)
Wipe Your Hard Disk Before Lending or Giving Away
The videographer for my wedding has given me 3 sets of DVD but I wanted more than that which is the original video files that is imported from his camcorder. Although DVDs has very good quality but it’s still not as clear as the original video files. The video guy told me that the videos are in AVI format and takes up 100GB. The only way I can get him to transfer the AVI files to me is to lend him my external hard drive and then collect it the next day when he’s done copying.
I have an external 5.25″ 7200RPM USB/Firewire hard drive which I can pass it to him to copy but before doing that, it is important that I wipe out whatever is in there to prevent from being recovered. If you didn’t know, when a file is deleted from your computer even when after emptying the recycle bin, the file can still be recovered using data recovery software. This hard drive used to be my backup hard drive and it contained a lot of important stuff that is worth keeping. Leaving my hard drive to a stranger for the whole day is definitely dangerous. Here’s what I used to securely wipe out my hard drive.
I’d used Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN) but since it is a boot disk and I didn’t want to go through the trouble of loading the correct drivers my external firewire hard drive, I prefer something simple and portable that can be ran on Windows. I found WipeDisk and Eraser which both are portable and very easy to use. WipeDisk looked easier than Eraser so I gave it a try. After running WipeDisk for about 30 minutes, the WipeDisk program hung and there’s no way for me to terminate the program. I had press the power button for 5 seconds on my laptop to turn off the computer and then turn it back on.
I immediately deleted WipeDisk from my computer and then tried Eraser. Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Server 2008.
All I need to do is run Eraser, go to File > New Task and add the external hard drive. Right click on the drive that’s added in Eraser and select Run. It took about 170 minutes to wipe out my 200GB hard drive which is a bit long but you can set Eraser to sleep or shutdown your computer when finished.
Make sure you always wipe your disk first before lending your external hard drive, usb flash drive, camera memory card to your friend or when you want to throw or donate the drive away.
[ Download Eraser ]
Technorati Tags: delete , erase , wipe , eraser , security
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