"Open file with" dialog upon startup?

Question

Every time I login to my PC, I receive this message:

Now, it's not that big of a deal, and Windows 7 works just fine. What's odd is that it's supposedly just a generic 'Program' that 7 is trying to open. It's done this since I installed it. I've not downloaded any viruses or anything like that.

Can anyone help me resolve this?

Answer 1

You likely have a file named Program in the root of one of your disks; for example, C:\Program.

You also have a startup entry with missing quotation marks, pointing to C:\Program Files\Random App where it should be "C:\Program Files\Random App". Such an entry lacking quotes can be parsed in two different ways – in this order:

1. Path "C:\Program", two arguments "Files\Random" and "App";
2. Path "C:\Program Files\Random App", zero arguments.

This is a mistake by the program developers, but it usually goes unnoticed due to file existence checks done by Windows – it just goes to the second option most of the time. However, when "C:\Program" does exist, the first option becomes valid as well, and Windows attempts to open the file.

Windows XP used to warn the user about the existence of such files at logon time. I haven't tested if Windows 7 displays one, though.

As for how the file was created in the first place – the cause might be similar; even fairly recent programs (and, well, users) sometimes have the 1970's idea that File Names Shall Not Have Spaces...

Answer 2

We can find where the file is located. I don't know if this will work in your case (for this mysterious Program file), but it should for any other real file.

1. Download and extract Process Explorer
2. Log out and log back in to have the Open with window appear (do not close it)
3. Run Process Explorer
4. Right click rundll32.exe in the list of processes

5. In the Command line: box, you should see the following:

   "C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe" C:\Windows\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL <directory>\file
   

   Where <directory> is the location of the file (e.g. Program).

The directory may give you some context as to where this issue stems from. You should be able to find out where it is auto-starting using Autoruns and removing the proper entry. If not, simply deleting the file may do the trick.

Answer 3

I had the same problem in Windows 10. I had just had a consultant take remote control of the computer to fix several issues with MSN. Their remote program left text files in the "users" folder (C:/Users). Once I deleted the text files there, I no longer had the "how do you want to open this file" dialogue box at start-up.

If you are timid, move the files out of the "users" folder and restart to be sure this is the problem. Leave the folders inside "users" where they are (ex: public, default, etc.).

Gorman2d

Answer 4

I noticed this problem on my daughter's PC. She is an avid gamer and I am not sure what she did to get it. This might work for you or perhaps not. I was frustrated with my other attempts and reasoned if this was malware then I should turn it to Windows Defender which is precisely what I did. That didn't help me much but it led to a clue. I would thoroughly check to see if you are using CHROMIUM. The way to test to see if Chromium is doing this to your os is to look for it in msconfig. Take out the check mark beside Chromium and reboot. If the auto startup page does not show up on restart then this is your problem. You will have to do a registry edit to remove this auto-start window. In msconfig highlight Chromium and it will give you the registry thread you need to remove the file. I hope this helps.