New user profile creation error - Windows cannot open *.exe

Question

I have a Windows 7 laptop with the user "mydomain\boy" that cannot log in to the laptop. The error message is something like "User profile service cannot log in the user boy".

I then logged in with the domain admin account "mydomain\admin" and went to delete the "mydomain\boy" from My Computer > System Properties > Advanced system settings > User Profiles > Settings.

I also ensured that the user was deleted from Control Panel > User Accounts. I then deleted the user's folder C:\Users\boy and checked the registry at the location HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ to make sure that there was no entry for boy.

I followed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947215 using method 3 "Fix it for me" but does not seem to do anything (or I don't know how to use it).

After everything above... Every time I log in with a new user, be it boy, girl or any other domain account (other than the admin account already created when I first logged in to begin the fix/break), it takes a long time, and when the "preparing desktop" goes away, it starts to show Cannot open xyz.exe errors, e.g., regsvr.exe because of a file association problem with the .exe extension.

My question (*phew* finally...): Please tell me how to fix this? Thanks!

EDIT: Also cannot run .com files.

Answer 1

Run a SFC on the PC.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

EDIT:

If the exe will not run try this article to fix the exe file association http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950505

If the MS fixit does not work, go to this page and click the exe box, download the reg file and unzip it, then right click on the reg file and select merge, you may have to unzip it on another pc, then transfer to the problem pc. There is also a fix for "com" on this page.

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/file-asso-fixes-for-windows-7/

Association problems can be related to malware, have you scanned the system for malware and viruses lately?

. .

Answer 2

I had this issue a few days and in my case, my company PC had different registry configuration for each user. When I was tried to launch the regedit, cmd, or Chrome it got opened by Notepad++.

So my solution was to:

1. start cmd via taskmannager press control and click that will open a cmd for your current logged user. if you run this command "assoc | findstr /i "txtfile" you will see that .exe is associated with txtfile besides exefile

2. if you are in a company PC, log your current opened cmd with the system admin user by this command "runas /user:USERADMINOFYOURCORP cmd.exe" and insert the password

3. then launch the regedit and search for in case that you are the admin of your PC

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.EXE

   else

   -HKEY_USERS\{YOUR USER IN THE PC}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe
   

you will see that it's set to the txtfile.

So create this file with the name exefixer.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_USERS\{YOUR USER IN THE PC}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]

[-HKEY_USERS\{YOUR USER IN THE PC}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe]

[-HKEY_USERS\{YOUR USER IN THE PC}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithList]

[-HKEY_USERS\{YOUR USER IN THE PC}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids]
"exefile"=hex(0):

run it from the cmd