Vista trials and tribulations.

[Justin Jump]

Hey all, new reader, new member.

My laptop is doing so weird and wild stuff, and I'd much rather take care of this problem myself (with the help of the internet, of course) than take it to a rotund egghead who will probably press three buttons, fix it completely, and charge me five hundred dollars.

So here's the deal: First, when I was to click on, say, a Picture folder, the folder will load up but all the thumbnailed images of all my pictures will be the same stock Windows image. Like, I can't preview any of my pictures by looking at their thumbnails anymore.

So that was a problem, and it's still a problem. Haven't fixed that one.

Now recently, when I want to open a program, say Itunes or Firefox, instead of doing exactly that, it takes me to a Windows 'Open With' subscreen and asks me with WHICH program I'd like to open....the program I'd like to open. It's maddening.

My Macafee isn't opening any more. I just did a Dell System Update last night but it said it didn't find anything. I ran an Ad-Aware that didn't find anything. And to top it all off, for some reason my computer simply cannot check for new Windows Updates.

I have no idea what's going on. Oh and if it matters my keyboard is all wonky. Not that that's an issue anybody here can help me with but I thought I'd mention it. My laptop is only a year or so old so I'm not sure why it's having all these issues.

Oh and I don't know what kind of Vista I have. 32? 64? How do I find that out?

Thank you with all my heart and soul for any assistance anyone can give.

 

[osholt]

Hi and welcome to the forums .

I will answer your questions in order and supply the appropriate links.

Your thumbnails not opening can probably be fixed by resetting the thumbnail cash (Thumbnail Cache - Clear and Reset - Windows 7 Forums)

If you can't open an exe file then this suggests you've been fiddling with the registry or used a registry cleaner, if you have restore the registry to before the problem started. If you haven't been fiddling with the registry try doing a system restore (http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html).

If McAfee isn't opening it should be fixed by the previous suggestion, I would also recommend running AntiMalware bytes to check for and remove malware (Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free Download and Reviews - Fileforum).

Oh and to find out what your PCs Specs and OS version are use Speccy (Speccy - System Information - Free Download).

I hope this helps, post back with any and all results.

Oli

 

[Justin Jump]

Wow, great response, thank you. The first thumbnail saga has been corrected, just like that. Much appreciated!

Now the second isn't running so smoothly. When I try to open the System Restore it is telling me:

'There was an unexpected error:

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Please close System Restore and try again.'

Wheeeeee. Any ideas? Oh and I also tried to run the Malwarebytes thing you showed, but after downloading, I try to run it and it says 'Application not found' and it makes that awful metallic BONK sound that just crushes me each time I hear it.

 

[osholt]

Wow, great response, thank you. The first thumbnail saga has been corrected, just like that. Much appreciated!

Now the second isn't running so smoothly. When I try to open the System Restore it is telling me:

'There was an unexpected error:

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Please close System Restore and try again.'

Wheeeeee. Any ideas? Oh and I also tried to run the Malwarebytes thing you showed, but after downloading, I try to run it and it says 'Application not found' and it makes that awful metallic BONK sound that just crushes me each time I hear it.

Try doing a system restore off your installation disk, there is a guide on how to do this at http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html .

Hopefully this will fix the Malwarebytes installation issue too.

Oli

 

[Katokato]

For the open with problem:

Restore association with .exe files: Restore the .exe file association in Windows Vista, after incorrectly associating it with another application

Also try this one if the above doesnt work: Broken EXE Association