My daughter runs XP and every time she double clicks on a program to
execute it, she gets an error message that the file can not be found. 
It shows the path to the program but will not open it.  If she right
clicks the mouse button and then hits open, she gets the same message,
"file cannot be found".  The only way she can open a program is to
open a file created by that program.  Anyone know why and how to
correct this problem?

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 21 Mar 2005 20:09 PST

Please, can you tell us if this happens with an specific program or
with many, can you tell us which program fails to start.
Does this happen when she click on the desktop shortcut, usually
represented by an icon? If the answer for the last question is
affirmative, please do the following:
- Right click on the icon.
- Select Properties.
- Check if the info in the boxes "Target or Destination" and "Start
in" is correct, i.e. it corresponds with the current location of the
program to be launched by the shortcut.

I will wait for your response to give you more assistance on this.

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Clarification of Question by dickb90-ga on 22 Mar 2005 06:39 PST

This happens with all programs.  Word Perfert, Adware, Stopcop, Norton
Anti-virus are a few that I have tried.  Even a setup program that I
am trying to execute off a cd gets the same error message.

hi dickb90!

for sure that you have a virus, a spyware or a register problem.

let me recommend you to run an antivirus, you can run it from the
command line if you do the following:

1) Click on Start
2) Click on Run
3) type "iexplore www.pandasoftware.com"

in the example you will be opening the Panda Software home page where
you can find the Panda ActiveScan

you can also try to install and run any antispyware like AdAware,
SpyBot or Spy Blaster S&D, but let me recommend you to install and run
all of them

after all run de scanreg (built-in with windows), the regcleaner (an
excelent program to check and repair de windows registry and... the
last option: restore a registry backup.

hope you can find this information usefull and solve your problem soon,
Emiliano.